Wizard of Zero
by frag2k13
Summary: Post 4th year Harry Potter, No Current Pairings, Louise's summoning of Harry results in his binding, trapped with no immediate way home he must deal with an apparent talentless magic user and her powerful family, at least school should be peaceful.
1. The Arrival

**A/N: So I have read some of these and honestly felt disappointed with the wasted potential, so much to be done but many railroad the story and it becomes Insert=Saito, a test on my end to see if I can break that wall.**

**This is either the first or second of my HP/FOZ fics both open the same but after his arrival things change.**

**A/N2: A rewrite of the previous version of this chapter, tightened up a few things and changed some events around, also explained a scene better this time.**

**Usual rules of my fics apply, No season 2 used or even referenced, no railroading into canon and no bashing.**

**Civil war in Albion. – Started before story so no reason to change it.**

**Tabitha's mission. – Tied into the above.**

**Louise's Engagement. – Back story.**

**Forquet's attempted robbery – Again already in the school.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Familiar of Zero not owned by me.**

**V 2.0**

**Tristain Academy**

"My Servant that existed somewhere in the vast Universe, my divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant, heed my call, I wish from the bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear."

And with those words uttered by an apparent failure of a mage, the fate of two people and two separate worlds would forever been changed, one who wished for recognition and one that wanted none of it.

But fate isn't kind and the spell neither, finding one that could fit the bill it reached out to him but his path had yet to be chosen and one that would affect hers though whether in a good way or bad would be up to chance.

**Dursley's Home**

Never had the Dursley's house felt like a home, in many cases a prison would be a more apt example, the bars on the window adding credence to the idea, but since his arrival last week from his fourth year it seemed more and more like solitary confinement.

Worse so was the nights, the nightmares, each one seeing the sickly green glow of the spell and Cedric's dead body fall to the ground, it didn't help that as he stood there watching the scene unable to move or even yell out to warn him the body while lifeless would tell him it was his fault, the blank eyes that pierced into him and then the laughing of Voldemort and Wormtail.

He would wake up in a sweat screaming and within moments the loud banging of his uncle on the wall telling him to shut up could be heard, and he would curl up and hate himself more.

The aftermath of the tournament itself had been a mixture of confusion, accusations and anger, sure the Tri-wizard tournament wasn't a safe event, people did die it was one of the reason they had added the rule this time around to prevent people below the 6th year joining, the last one was open to all and the very untrained young wizards or witches were quickly killed.

Lying on his bed was the best he could do some days, after making the breakfast for his relatives Harry had retreated to his room, the oversized clothing of a pair of Khaki trousers 3 sizes too big in waist that with the belt fastened folded several times in certain areas, and a baggy cheque shirt in brown and grey that when loose fell close to his mid-thigh.

As Harry stared at the ceiling he felt anger, anger at everything and everyone, Dumbledore was one of his targets, the fact he had the gall to demand to know if he had put him name in the cup or had asked someone else too, Dumbledore should have known after these years that he wanted a quiet life away from the press, the other schools he could accept as far as they knew he was 'Harry Potter Boy Who Lived and media whore', but not the headmaster.

Then there was his friends, Hermione and Ron, it wouldn't be a stretch to say he loved his friends, but they put too much stock in Dumbledore, he needed them now more than ever, he forgave Ron for the early betrayal because he was his first friend and needed that but he needed someone to talk to, someone to understand the pain he felt and as such he felt anger at them.

In fact the only wizarding contact he has currently had was a mysterious advanced copy of the Daily Prophet, the headlines stating THE BOY WHO LIVES in large letters with a picture of himself holding the body of Cedric, the words in the headline would change to THE BOY WHO LIES, the article written by Rita Skeeter the shrew woman that would be bottom of the list for accurate reporter of the year.

The sound of Hedwig hooting in the corner and the frantic flap of wings broke him out of his self-depreciation and anger, the sounds were cut off abruptly, almost like someone had cast a 'Silencio' spell on the world, sitting up he noticed a weird void in his room.

Jumping off his bed he grabbed his wand, the void was a vertically aligned oval, a very similar sickly green colour to the killing curse, the edges looking a mixture of fuzzy purples and red like when the TV was just turned on and warming up.

The void seemed to just hover there, sounds like a voice chanting but unknown gender seemed to come from it, Harry would consider himself a curious person, but with the very real threat of Voldemort hanging over his head the chances that this was one of his ploys was high.

He knew Voldemort was a flashy man that liked a spectacle but he was a smart one too, it wouldn't be too out of character for him to quietly kill him then parade his corpse down Diagon alley on a pole, or use some kind of puppeteer spell and have his rotting body dancing to a merry tune, no Harry wasn't taking a chance and tried for the window, opening the pane he tried shaking the solid bars hoping the damage done by the Weasley's car had weakened the wall, it hadn't.

Turning back to the void it remained still for a moment before it lanced out like a pool of green liquid metal, encompassing his arm Harry struggled to free himself, his wand and wand arm firmly encased in the substance, the voice on the other side became clearer, it was a girls voice but it didn't register well in his mind, a trap had appeared and while not triggered by himself it had triggered itself and ensnared him, yelling out in fear and anger Harry felt the hot tears run down his face, he felt he would die and no one would know it.

A sharp tug from the void felt like it would dislocate his arm but it swallowed him and he saw a sea of stars then blackness.

**Tristain Academy**

With the spell incanted Louise pointed her wand at the summoning area, the mutters from the unorthodox incantation ended as everyone held their breath, her eyes clenched shut as she hoped against hope that her perfect record of failure would be broken her family wouldn't accept anything less than a summon, however her record remained intact.

The explosion wasn't as powerful as expected of such a ritual, dense smoke filled the summoning area as wisps spread out to those brave few closest to the area, a few coughing fits from inhalation of the smoke, Louise flushed, her face matching her hair and eye colour, she looked at the column of smoke her eyes watering slightly, it was the same every time with her spells, fireball, explosion, alchemy, explosion, healing, explosion, summoning…..explosion.

"The zero strikes again, killing her familiar and trying to kill us." A voice spoke through the coughing turning the noise into laughing.

Louise rubbed her eyes and she put on the notion of coughing, few would question her eyes that close to the explosion, she was forever going to be a failure, Wardes would cancel the engagement and she would be cast from the family.

A serious coughing fit caught her attention, the location being the reason, inside the cloud, Professor Colbert acted quickly, as teacher of the class he had kept an eye on his students and knew they were all accounted for, waving his staff a short gust of wind cleared the area revealing a young dark haired man.

"Where am I?" Harry spoke more to himself.

He aimed his wand out instantly, training and far too many experiences with death causing the reaction, the tip of his wand pointed directly at the closest two people, the pink haired girl and the balding man.

His eyes darted to the group, students by his guess, the girls largely wearing white blouses and skirts, the guys white shirts and trousers though a few customisations stood out, he wasn't falling for it, not everything Voldemort did turned the area into dark foreboding locations, he would have liked that to be the case, but he was slowly building a case of paranoia.

He stepped back taking a duelling stance, his head swivelling slightly as he looked for exits, cover and locations to provide advantages from, nothing, flat grass of a lush green, walls too far away to make, the towers too and two moons?

It caught him flat footed, a pink and blue moon, while Frank Sinatra had sung about one and certainly Earth's moon turned blue sometimes Harry didn't believe it was quite this literal. The pink one was just raising more questions, a his and hers moons?

He shook his head and focused on the current situation, the 'students' were talking in an odd language, the venerable zoo of creatures at the back was eyed with suspicion, the large blue dragon and small red thing with the fiery tail that he thought might be something from the recent card game and Gameboy game that was becoming popular.

He eyed the dragon, it didn't look anywhere near as tough as the horntail, even without his broom he could take it, a few area spells, a Patronus to run interference and a healthy dose of Bombarda spells would solve the problem.

"Why am I here?" He turned and locked eyes with the oldest, the man with the blue jacket.

Both held the stare, Harry noticed the man's eyes seemed to hold a mixture of confusion and fascination in them, a coldness buried beneath that but only just like it was waiting for release, Harry had no doubts that the man was prepared for any hostile actions from him, but he too was ready.

Movement from his left caused a reaction from Harry, turning he aimed his wand and fired off an incantation.

"Incendio!" A stream of fire burst forth setting the grass alight and leaving a wall of fire between himself and the pink haired girl that had actually taken a step back to seemingly avoid the possibility of attack.

More movement from this right as the oldest man aimed his staff a bolt of fire erupting, the incantation taking several seconds and firing a slower moving bolt of flames, Harry blocked with his rapidly cast shield charm before sending a disarming spell.

"Expelliarmus." The invisible and unexpected counter sent the staff clattering away.

Harry raised his hands signalling what he hoped was no ill intent, he was high strung, afraid and confused calmness was needed but his heart was racing a torrent of magic filled him, something not normal to himself but if felt both off and seemed to overpower his spells.

The man in blue seemed to understand his intent by nodding and waving down the class, Harry briefly eyed the others several wands and a staff were aimed in his direction but clearly wary of his rapid disarming of the oldest amongst them.

A call out was heard again in a foreign tongue as the man said something to the collected students, a thin boy with blond hair and a rose rushed off towards the largest tower.

"A mistake, yeah must be, but where am I?" Harry muttered to himself, his wand lowered but still in hand, no one in their right mind would just stay docile under these circumstances and wait for whatever was to happen to happen, he had come a long way from his first year and the trials.

A few moments passed before the fire died down and he took stock of his first target, pink hair, the colour seemed to important in wherever he was, pink eyes too, short, a couple of inches shorter than him, his mind going to the idea of her being a metamorphmagus, the idea was filed as unlikely, the twin moons telling him he wasn't on Earth even if he still refused to accept that on sanity grounds.

The air remained thick with emotions to Harry as they waited, fear, suspicion, excitement, impatience and he was almost certain lust, he tried not to look around in confusion at that one for leaving himself open, he was certain to fifty percent of a percentage to ninety nine percent that the bronze skinned woman with the large breasts being touted from a form fitting blouse was the culprit, Lavender had seemed to come into that herself with half the Gryffindor males at the start of last year, Neville and himself had agreed it was a terrifying thing.

More movement caught his attention from the distance, the blond mop of hair and an older man were moving at a hurried but comfortable pace towards them, had Harry not remembered the headmasters of Beaubaxtons and Drumstrag he was almost certain the old codger with a beard type was a prerequisite for being a magical teacher.

The old man seemed to take centre stage as the pinked haired girl and balding man moved towards him, Harry watched as the trio spoke in a mixture of hushed tones from the one and loud words from the girl that sounded pleading.

As they spoke Harry went through a list of combat and utility spells that would help him if things went south, Malfoys snake summoning spell mixed with his parceltongue, a small scattering of cutting, bludgeoning and exploding hexes and Ron's infamous slug spell, the last one would be an interesting one to use against the threats.

He felt his leg twinge in pain as they trio turned to him, shifting from his battle stance to another he watched as the old man seemed to mime speaking and listening while pointing at his wand.

Harry shook his head, he wasn't buying that, fool him once wasn't even an option, he had no support or friends around paranoia based smarts was the best bet at this point. He watched as the man began casting anyway, what culture took a head shaking no as a yes?

The spell hit….the girl. Harry was confused, he heard the incantation but couldn't fathom the meaning of the words, clearly not Latin, but the spell seemed harmless to the girl, the old man motioned again to the wand, Harry shook his head again.

The air seemed to fill with annoyance, he knew he was being unfair but cared not one bit, history would judge his actions, though he could be a bit more trusting with these people who had only done a single hostile action in retaliation to his own, but that meant nothing, the winner wrote history and no winner even made their actions as anything other than heroic or necessary to the situation, he wasn't going to be a third party to his own life story again.

More gesturing from the younger man now followed, his face scrunched up in annoyance, the wording was still illegible to him though it was loud, he didn't get time to wonder as the pink haired girl screamed something at him before he felt an impact and fell to the floor, his last moments of consciousness were him cursing not keeping an eye on the others.

**Summoning Field**

The trio looked at the offending attacking mage, the crooked staff held out by the quiet blue haired girl Tabitha was moved back to a normal position.

"No progress was being made." She stated levelly. "A translation spell can now expedite the issue."

Colbert sighed, while it was true it wasn't going to help their case to the young mage, though he idly noted the girl had spoken more then than she had in his presence last year, shaking the idea from his head he began moving closer slowly expecting him to jump up and launch a barrage of fire spells and other dangerous magicks at them all.

Upon closer inspection a few abnormalities of the boy were noticed, his clothing, the baggy oversized cloth suggested some form of hand-me-downs, the style wasn't expected either, the top having no buttons or anything but a large image that was cracked and faded.

The trousers too, a blue and white material that in his opinion looked hard wearing but comfortable, while not a style he recognised and certainly again oversized by the belt around his waist they suggested fashionable clothing.

To Colbert he didn't have the trappings of a noble, but he was clearly skilled in battle, blind-siding not withstanding his deflection and counter were quick and precise, the young man had seen real battle to do that.

"Now Ms Valliere, please complete the ritual." Colbert turned in shock at Osmond's comment.

"But he's a noble." Louise spluttered.

"Maybe, however even the nobles must bow to our tenants, you summoned him." Osmond replied before noticing Colbert about to speak. "Jean, I know what you are going to say, but the repercussions for Ms Valliere are severe either way, but this is the best option we have."

Colbert sighed, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't but best options weren't truly the best, whoever the young man was, was he really going to just smile and accept this? The fact he wasn't allowing anyone to cast a spell on him even the translation spell showed he wasn't in a trusting mood.

"Sorry young man, but you have been bound for all your life to another person." Colbert muttered sarcastically. "Yes, that will go over well."

The student body themselves had moved in with the situation disarmed, Colbert looked up causing them to all step back slightly, he idly realising his face had taken on his old combat persona, he quickly schooled it.

"Ok, everyone but Ms Valliere is dismissed." Colbert clapped causing grumbling from the group who began flying away with their familiars in tow.

Louise stood frozen during this, Old Osmond wanted her to bind this person? A mage? She could only wonder what her mother would say hearing this, it was known bad news travelled faster than good, already the other students would be penning letters to their families about her, another disgrace she had piled on her own family.

She looked down at the unconscious boy, he was young, about her age she figured, tanned skin of someone that spent a lot of time outside, shaggy black hair that covered something. She brushed his hair aside as she knelt down, a scar! In the shape of a lightning bolt.

"Professor!" She called out before pointing at it.

"Interesting, it's an elemental rune, but on his forehead? When he wakes up I should ask him." Colbert coughed in embarrassment seeing the two looks he was getting. "Please continue."

Louise felt her face heat up, her first kiss with someone her own age, the distance between the two slowly decreased as she moved forward, she didn't like this one bit, he was a noble, an unconscious noble.

She muttered the incantation to finalise the spell before her lips softly touched his, something 'clicked' inside her head as she felt the spell complete, raising back to her knees straight she touched her lips feeling the lingering warmth.

The small afterglow failed to remain when the boy spasmed, his back arching as he writhed in pain, his face twisted and morphed as expressions of pain, fear, anger and raw hatred battled to become the dominant force he was seemingly mustering.

"Professor!" Louise parroted her earlier call.

"Something's wrong Osmond, mages were never meant to be bound."

The trio tried to hold down the writhing boy, the strength in his frame belayed his size as the three had trouble holding onto him.

A splatter of blood his Louise's face as she tried to pin down his arm, the forearm flailing wildly as she noticed the back of his left hand split open as symbols seemed to carve themselves into him of their own accord.

A scream of inhuman nature escaped the boy's mouth as with even more strength than before he sat bolt upright throwing all three off him, black ichor poured down from his scar as his eyes opened to reveal pupils of the same black colour.

Louise rushed back to him from her thrown location as a howl like wind through trees seemed to emanate from the scar itself, a cloud of smoke like a wraith burst forth taking the shape of a face.

The smoke enveloped her causing lancing pain before it circuited the area wailing out as it slowly dissipated into nothingness.

"Ms Valliere, are you ok?" Colbert asked as Louise was again on the ground staring at the sky.

"Urgh, my head hurts." Louise replied before she passed out.

**Infirmary**

The saying the more things change the more they stay the same seemed apt for Harry, his eyes opened to the usual blurring vision, swiping to the right he felt his glasses within reach and put them on to reveal, an infirmary, he groaned as his whole body felt on fire, pain inside his head like a thousand needles stuck into icicles rammed into his head.

His mind tried to follow what happened, he was at home being ignored as usual, a green portal, another world, and then he got hit. He nodded at the chain of events, looking around he noticed a mound of pink hair resting against his bed, a pair of small hot hands holding his left arm.

Harry stared at the girl pinning him down, the closer inspection from earlier gave her an almost doll like appearance that made her seem even younger than him, his eyes followed his pinned arm to notice a series of marks burned into his skin, red and angry, vaguely looking like Roman numerals.

"Ah! You're up, I'll get the headmaster." A woman spoke entering the room.

Harry watched as the woman shot back out the door before returning and pouring a glass of water.

"For you, you must be thirsty." She then left quickly leaving him a bit bewildered, he only then realised he understood what she was saying.

Using his only free hand for not wanting to free his trapped one from the girl he grabbed the glass, sipping the water he found the taste strange, smelling it before trying again he realised the absence of cleaning chemicals, it was like Hogwarts, the water wasn't processed like Muggle water and had a different taste, licking his lips realising he was indeed thirsty he quickly downed the tepid water.

The infirmary quickly became crowded as the matron reappeared along with the two men and a woman with green hair, trying to work out that one too he felt stirring from his left the loss of pressure on his left arm saw the girl wake and to himself yawn cutely.

Taking the freedom Harry rubbed the slightly numbed arm as he eyed the trio watching him as the matron went about her duties.

"Now, I believe we can talk, I must say you were quite stubborn, the student that attacked you has been reprimanded." The old man spoke.

Harry didn't believe that for a second if only on the virtue of the balding man shooting a shocked look at him.

"Still introductions are in order, I am headmaster Osmond but everyone calls me old Osmond, I run the Tristain magic academy you are currently at, this fellow is one of our teachers Professor Colbert and the lovely lady with white cotton panties is argh!"

Harry watched as the old man fell to the floor, the out stretched foot of the blushing woman told him what happened. His mind registering the name of the academy he was in he hadn't heard of it, but then he only knew three magic schools.

"Ms Longueville."

"Harry, Harry Potter." Social decorum was needed for future communications, knowing names helped that as Harry introduced himself. "How did I get here? The school I mean."

Harry needed to be careful now, while he had spent many years of his life being given abridged information and even sometimes completely falsified accounts he knew that it can help when in trouble.

"You should respect your elders Ms Longueville." Osmond got back up rather quickly for the impact.

"And you should stop being a perverted old man." The woman rounded.

"It's a funny story really." Osmond turned back to Harry as he pulled out a large oversized pipe, Harry narrowed his eyes slightly, funny stories were often never funny to the victim. "The young lady to your left, Ms Louise Valliere summoned you as her familiar."

Harry felt his blood run cold, Hedwig, Crookshanks and disgustingly enough Scabbers were familiars, pets, while the golden trio always looked after their pets and outside of Ron and his rat respected them well he didn't think a human familiar would get such treatment, the term house elf came to mind.

"Hilarious." Harry replied his voice laced with sarcasm and venom. "But I refuse."

"I told you Osmond." Professor Colbert stated next to him.

"I'm terribly sorry, but the binding has been complete, that." He pointed to the raw wound on his hand. "Is proof of the binding that…"

Osmond's voice was cut off when his hair caught alight, the magic inside Harry igniting his hair, a few seconds passed before a water spell put it out.

"Impressive, to cast magic without a wand or incantation, you must be some prodigy." Osmond recovered again with remarkable speed. "But enough of that, the bind was done."

"Without my consent." Harry spat out. "Put yourself in my shoes, would you want that?"

"Well….." Osmond looked away awkwardly. "Breaking our tenants is sacrilege, if I had the choice."

"But I didn't." Harry broke in again. "Now where is my wand?"

"By here." The woman handed him his focus which Harry took in two fingers.

"Now headmaster, I am pissed off enough here that I can see myself throwing around unforgivables, I wonder how many here can survive the killing curse?" Harry poked the tip of his wand.

Harry gripped the wand properly before jumping out of bed almost knocking over Louise in the process, a surge of energy filled him as secrets of magic he didn't, hadn't and shouldn't know entered his mind.

"So tell me headmaster, why shouldn't I just deal with you now? From Colbert's comment you were the instigator and the pink one here would by my guess have been against it too."

"The shade young man." Osmond blurted out causing Harry to pause, what shade?

"Shade?"

The whole room was filled with a mixture of anger, fear and confusion, the Matron had hidden beside her desk while Colbert was moving his staff ready.

"Yes, when Ms Valliere sealed the spell a shade burst out of your rune on your forehead, I dare say we thought we had killed you."

Harry reached up and touched his infamous scar, the usual rough feeling of scabbed flesh was different from normal, a thin groove of healing flesh now rest there instead.

"Ah I see, ok I forgive you." Harry stated lowering his wand.

"Really?" Osmond looked shocked by the turn of events.

"No." Harry raised his wand again rolling his eyes, who in their right or wrong mind would just accept that? "But you will answer my questions. Now what was the shade?"

The group looked at each other before settling their eyes back at the hostage taker.

"It was in you, shouldn't you know?"

Harry would admit they had a point there, which only beggared the question as to what the hell this apparent shade was? This naturally assumed they were telling the truth and not weaving some elaborate ruse, but he couldn't see that from his current position.

"Describe the shade." Harry commanded.

"Black, smoky, a face, wailing."

"Voldemort!" Harry spat out, the image sounding like the one from his first year. "That wanker!" Harry breathed a sigh of relief at least it was gone now. "Still break the binding, and I will thank you for removing that from my head."

"We, uh, can't young Harry, the binding is permanent."

Harry's wand was now pointed at Louise, the girl glared up at him as he briefly sent his own glare down at her, she shivered at the coldness of his gaze.

"Kill the master, free the familiar, that work?" Harry asked as Louise stepped back up against the wall.

"Now, now, let's not do anything hasty." Osmond put his hands up in a placating gesture. "The binding has never been done on a human before, I think, maybe we should calm down and get some rest, it will give my staff some time to dig through the old texts and find something, can you give us until tomorrow?"

Harry wanted to reply he had already rested from being attacked, but agreed, he felt tired, not in the physical sense, he felt significantly more powerful than usual at this point, he felt mentally exhausted, too many emotions had passed through him.

"Ok." Harry agreed, aside from the whole summoning, attack and binding, now he thought about it maybe he shouldn't agree.

"Very good, Ms Valliere here will be your liaison, I will assign a personal servant from our staff here too, and Ms Valliere please take him to the guest quarters."

Louise nodded fast enough that Harry was certain her head would come off, he would question her later, she seemed more pliable to an interrogation, he pocketed his wand at that signalling an end to the current hostilities.

With that Osmond turned and left with surprising haste, Ms Longueville hung back a few moment longer, a wan smile on her face that spoke of someone used to the old man and apologising for him, Colbert stepped forward.

"Harry, can I call you Harry?" A nod allowed him to continue. "May I see the rune, I need to know what I am looking for."

Harry raised his fringe getting Colbert to shake his head, Harry looked at his left hand belatedly realising which runes he meant, he had spent enough time with people asking about his scar it was becoming a Pavlovian response.

"Hmm, old, very old." Colbert seemed to burn the image into his mind or a hole through Harry's hand. "Ok, I will see what I can find, and Harry, please don't blame Osmond, while he is a highly progressive man, sometimes issues are bigger than ourselves, Osmond was thinking about wider things, I know we lose sight of the people when that happens, but he isn't happy he had to do that."

Harry nodded in understanding, not acceptance, how many times had people suffered for something like the greater good? It was like Dumbledore, the man tried, oh Harry knew that, his constant trying to handle all his responsibilities and help a young teen deal with a megalomaniac meant it was difficult to switch from head of several organisations to the kindly grandfather type figure he had been in the first year.

With that Colbert too left leaving only the matron who was keeping herself busy and himself with Louise, he looked down at the girl that was doing her level best to round Harry without making it obvious.

"Co-come, Sir Harry." Almost bolting passed him Harry allowed a sad smile on his face, it was like second year, fear of him.

As they left what was the central tower Harry got his first non tactical look at his surroundings, fields of lush green grass waving in the breeze, the sun was low on the horizon, not yet late but straddling the line of afternoon evening, the grass itself showed no paths or wander lines suggesting magically hardened grass.

White stone walls that wouldn't be out of place around a castle joined the parameter towers in a seeming ring, the only oddity was each smaller outer tower connected to the main one, except one.

His eyes tracked up at the sky, blue with a hint of purple, the sun gold as his one, but there still hanging and mocking him were the pink and blue moons that were the biggest and more glaring fact he wasn't on Earth anymore, he felt himself tremble at this, anger and sadness warred, he wanted to yell out and cry.

Louise paused sensing her charge and familiar had stopped, turning around she put her hands on her hips a brief flash of annoyance crossed her face, the earlier confrontation slowly fading from her.

"What is it?" The impatience in her voice evident.

"Just, I'm a long way from home." He muttered before moving again.

Louise wasn't sure what that meant really, it made some sense, he neither spoke the common language nor acted like he knew where he was, sure he used magic and his appearance was similar to their own, but aside from the small similarities he was completely alien to her.

Deciding that saying nothing instead of causing more upset and the potential for more magical based threats Louise moved towards the tower again, the guest tower had a similar layout to the students one, multiple rooms per floor from the first one up and a large common space for relaxing outside of the assign room.

It spread out before him, he was almost certain it was Time Lord magic, the space spread out with tables and chairs in lavish carved wood, book cases filled with tomes and text he couldn't understand the script of and a currently unlit fireplace, several sets of stairs leading up to the first floor ran around the edges of the circular building.

"This is the guest's common room, I guess you have it to yourself today, let's go left." Louise faltered not sure how to deal with the mage.

Harry nodded as the two climbed the left most and closest stairway up to the first floor, a series of doors leading to private rooms, the light coming from several windows with candles unlit ready for the evening.

"This is your room, all the rest are empty, the stairs at the end lead to the next floor and beyond, you have access to the roof from there."

Opening the heavy door Louise entered first followed by Harry, the large room certainly gave the impression of class, he could fit the fourth year Gryffindor bedroom into this room and it was to be used by him?

A large bed that clearly to him was bigger than a standard double was the first bit of furniture he saw, four poster bed too, a set of solid clothing storage lined the one wall, wardrobe, chest of draws and vanity, a table and several chairs and a cabinet filled out the room, a lush oval rug was the sole floor decoration a deep red with gold patterns.

Harry spent a few moments searching the room, checking the draws and various storage spaces, the draws slid open solidly but with the obvious nature of not being sliders, there was nothing in them but it made sense that the guest rooms would be empty.

A knock on the door prevented a more thorough exploration of the room, the two looked at each other before Louise sighed in annoyance.

"It's your room, but fine, enter." She called out before the door opened.

A young woman in a maid uniform entered carrying a tray, an ornate bone china teapot and matching cups, a wisp of steam escaping the spout, a small pile of sandwiches sat neatly on a plate.

Harry watched as the maid placed the tray down, Louise already seated as she poured the tea with practised ease, Harry following suit sitting down as a cup of tea was placed in front of him, the liquid a crimson colour with a slightly tang of citrus.

"Thank you." Harry stated.

"Siesta, sir, I have been assigned as your maid for the foreseeable future." The maid gave a slight bow. "If there is anything you need I will be staying down in the guest servant quarters, the small bell on the wall will alert me."

"We will call you later." Louise stated taking charge, Siesta nodded before heading for the door. "Now, Sir Harry, where are you from?"

"Surrey, Great Britain." He replied, that small detail wasn't a problem.

"Never heard of it, is it a small country?" Louise decided it was probably better not to annoy her more magically competent familiar, having shown a propriety for fire and battle it was the safer bet.

"It is, it wasn't, it's a small island nation off the coast of the European continent, but it is still a force to be reckoned with."

Louise nodded, so it was like Albion in that regard, a small but powerful nation, hard to attack, easy to defend.

"So where are we now?" Harry asked sipping his tea slowly.

"The country of Tristain." Louise rubbed her head slightly feeling a headache coming. "This is the continent of Halkegenia, so you must be from beyond the Elven lands, far beyond them."

Harry paused his reach for a sandwich at that comment, Elven lands? The idea of a country full of Dobby, it made him shudder a little, he doubted they were the pitiable creatures that his reality portrayed, maybe more like the fiction books he had read in the library to waste time.

"Dobby!" Harry called out startling Louise who looked around concerned and confused. "Dobby?"

Nothing happened except the sound of breathing, to Harry there was no tell-tale pop of apparition magic or the sounds of an excitable elf.

"Who's Dobby?" Louise asked hesitantly.

"Oh, my uh self-professed house elf, he."

"You command an elf?!" Louise almost screamed, her eyes racked with both a small measure of respect and large amount of fear. It only increased when Harry nodded. "What kind of people are yours to do that?"

Harry felt a little torn, did he explain that the elves were a diminutive race of slaves or give the impression of whatever passed for elves here? He still needed to get home, holding the impression of power was a better choice, a bluff.

"Many families have them, my magic school uses them to cook our foods and clean the castle."

Nothing Harry said he realised was a lie, while the elves seemed to enjoy the work at the castle he had no idea of the treatment from the families themselves, he could only guess on that account.

Silence reigned as the comment hung in the air, Louise wanted to ask about his school, the families but instead reached for one of the small finely cut triangular sandwiches, the fresh leafy greens and reds mixed with some salted meat, it wasn't her usual fare but she liked it.

Finishing the light meal and tea the pair sat in silence, to Harry it was fine, he had spent years in the cupboard under the stairs just watching dust motes floating in the air and counting the spiders, it gave him time to think, to take stock of his situation.

For Louise it was less so, it allowed her to think on bad things, the person in front of her, a mage, powerful, she knew that, dangerous, she had screwed up, she knew that by the fact she had summoned a person, she wished her spell had failed, an explosion was far better an outcome that this, what would her mother say? The idea of that confrontation sent shivers down her spine.

"I think we should end it here." Louise stood up slowly. "I will come get you in the morning before breakfast."

With that she pulled the small cloth rope, Harry knew it was geared to another room, the old way of informing staff of particular rooms required attention, long before telephones came to be.

A minute passed before the door was again knocked, Louise standing near the door opened it to reveal the maid from before, Harry had to wonder what she did in her spare time, did she just sit waiting on the bell? It seemed silly to him but if it was just her tending to him maybe it was.

"Maid, I am leaving please clean up." With that Louise exited the room before turning around. "H-have a good evening Sir Harry."

Harry had to wonder whether this was her personality or she was putting on airs, her awkward goodbye suggested she wasn't the most social person, not that he could talk, sure he interacted well with those around him, but strangers he took a while with, to find herself bound to someone else was probably causing her no end of confusion as to how to treat him.

"Is there anything I can help you with Sir Harry?" The maid spoke startling Harry from his musings.

"Uh yes, where would the bathroom and toilet be?" Important questions in any grand scheme, hygiene was one of the most important factors in life.

"The chamber pot in under the bed." Siesta pulled it out and checked it before nodding. "There is a proper toilet down the end of the hall, please inform me if you use that one, the bathroom is opposite that, please let me know beforehand so I can heat the water."

"May I use it now please?" Harry asked getting a nod.

"Certainly Sir Harry, allow me to take these dishes away and I will draw you a bath and call you when it is ready, do, do you have a change of clothing? I can wash those for you."

Harry looked down at his hand-me-downs, jeans and T-shirt, it was true he would need something he had been in his current clothes all day.

"If you have something yes, but my trousers take a long time to dry to let you know."

The maid nodded as she smiled before staring at him for a long while, Harry shift uncomfortably at this, he had had more than a few girls give him long stares over the years, fan girls and the like, but this was more clinical Harry felt.

"Uh….."

"Oh, sorry Sir, I was just gauging your build for the spare clothing, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the time to retailor something to your size, would something larger like your current clothing do until tomorrow?"

"Yes, that would be fine." Harry agreed, he was used to it.

With skill that would to many but not Harry belayed her age the maid Siesta gathered up the crockery and left with perfect balance, left alone for the first time in a while Harry slumped onto the bed noting the lack of springs in the mattress as his mind filled with the situation at hand.

**Library**

The Tristain Library was separated into several subdivisions regarding access, the student zone, the student with teacher's permission zone, the teacher's zone, the headmaster's zone and the royal archives.

Each area holding more esoteric books and in some cases books with downright heretical text, with the headmasters blessing he was in that section, old books faithfully copied, at least they were claimed to be, the originals either behind the door to his back, in the vault a few floors up or in the palace.

Colbert lift another book up from the waiting pile, a dozen various bound books sat already briefly checked as another one was held up, the once blue leather cover now flaking and covered in thick grey dust, the edges of the paper now slightly yellow, it was one of the oldest books he found in the section.

Blowing the dust off the light wavered from the table candle as he covered his mouth, the gold lettering 'Summons of note' was from the earlier era, a time only centuries after Brimir had passed on, if he was correct this would be the tenth rewrite of the book, done by the most trusted scribes under the watch of the most trusted advisors of the crown.

He opened it slowly, the book easily a century old, while the magic preserved it well, it faded with time, the book itself had passed hands and had been read before resulting in minor wear and tear.

Pushing his glasses up he gently flipped the pages his eyes looking for certain key words and images, each drawing inside the book done like a work of art, dragons so detailed they may well jump off the page.

Moving through the book he stopped briefly at the image of another summon, he would say dragon again, but it wasn't, a large rotund body with short stubby legs, a long neck with squashed head that was only slightly larger than the adjoining neck, large thick spikes ran its back and a tail with pointed barbs.

The small human drawing next to it, its summoner showed the beast was three times as large, catching his interest he briefly red about it before continuing on.

He rolled his eyes, the saying, always the last place you looked, it was to him one of the sillier sayings, you don't find something and keep looking so yes the saying was a bit redundant, still he found the information, or at least something like it.

Placing a thin sheet of paper inside to mark it he moved that to another pile, the first one found before continuing, the small amount of information made it unviable as certain proof, he needed something concrete to take to Osmond, he didn't mind, the information he was finding was fascinating to him.

**Louise's Room**

Louise made her way into the student dorms and up to her room without issue, the various students either holed up in their room with their new familiars or in groups around the school showing them off to friends in other years.

Louise rubbed her head again, since that cloud of smoke, 'shade' hit her her head had throbbed painfully, the numbing feeling came and went without warning, the latest one on the stairs had threatened to send her tumbling down the flight but she had steadied herself.

Entering her room she quickly changed into her usual sleeping clothes, while the sun had only just gone down and was far from her usual sleeping hours, the fatigue was starting to catch up to her.

Climbing into her bed she tossed around trying to get comfortable while fighting the headache, her eyes slowly closing and sleeping taking her, the last moment a quite hiss was heard.

**Dream**

Louise had had many dreams like anyone did, everything from standing tall with curves to rival Kirche or her sister while her arch nemesis bowed, as flat as a board and admitting Louise superiority, to one of everyone she knew pointing and laughing at her while she was in the stocks naked being pelted with tomatoes.

To be in a graveyard was something else, the dream felt odd, off, like it wasn't her dream, it shouldn't be, she had never seen such a place, creepy grey tombstones and monuments filled the lot, the sky dark and chilling, a place of true death.

Peering at one of the closest stones he looked at the writing she couldn't understand a single line, the what could only be numerals suggested a life and death of the occupant, the grave itself chilling, an evil looking figure of stone on the grave a wicked scythe in its bony hand.

The sound of someone hitting the ground behind her caused her to turn, her familiar! The second boy she didn't recognise but the object they were both holding some form of large chalice bounced off down a slight incline.

Moving over to the pair she noticed neither showed any sign of her presence, waving her hand through them both she heard someone speak in a language she didn't recognise, she turned to see a third figure appear carrying a bundle a wand in hand.

"_Avada Kedavra."_ A sickly green bolt hit the unknown boy next to Harry, the boy crumpling to the ground as it a puppet without strings, Harry's cry told her the person had been killed, it was scary how simple that had been, nothing fancy like her mother's spell, just simple death.

"Wormtail!" Harry's voice growled, Louise watched realising the words were becoming clearer to her ears, like she was understanding them, Harry was quickly launched into the monument she had eyed earlier, the stone entity moved like a golem and locked him in place.

The being known as Wormtail moved closer as another voice was heard coming from the bundle, the cover removed slightly to reveal a face, near see-through skin that clung to bone, a lack of nose but two nostrils where it should be, a very reptilian appearance.

A few hissed words that weren't fully understood by her but the context of them clearly being enemies was worked out, a large cauldron nearby ignited quickly bringing some liquid inside to a bubbling state.

Louise watched her with a mixture of horror and fascination as the cloth bundle was removed revealing an emancipated man, dropping him into the liquid it bubbled furiously, the liquid taking a milky sheen.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given." The ratty now de-hooded man Wormtail chanted. "You will revive your son."

A large bone tore itself from the ground at Harry's feet, hovering in the air before being deposited in the cauldron.

Heretic magic, it was the only thing Louise could think of, she would have gone with a resurrection spell had the person earlier tossed in the vat not clearly been the one the ritual was intended for.

"Flesh of the servant w-willingly given, you will revive your master." Wormtail continued pulling a knife from his cloak and cutting his hand off, the limb fell into the pot with a splash, Louise gasped, the zeal of the caster was impressive, potions and rituals were usually an affair of exacts with reagents, the earlier familiar summoning a good lesson in that.

Whatever magicks Harry and his people used, showed either that wasn't the case or the man had cut off exactly what he required, it made sense to her now what she was seeing was clearly a memory of Harry's, had the binding done this or the shade?

"Blood o-of the enemy, f-forcibly taken." His voice wavering from the pain, the knife stabbing into his wrist and drawing a small amount of blood. "You will resurrect your foe."

The blood drops hit the liquid causing the ritual to complete, intent, it was all about that from the incantation, had Wormtail not been willing or Harry had been, again it was like her earlier one, everything was taken into account, magic affinity, capacity, disposition, gender and those were just the personal ones.

Clouds of smoke poured out of the cauldron as a figure rose from the depths of the liquid, the once frail creature now looking like a powerful man, to Louise the nose or lack thereof was still detracting her but a cloak was brought out that he donned.

Wormtail handed the man his wand, his only remaining arm was offered as a sigil was poked, seconds passed before a dozen people appeared on black smoke each wearing a full body black cloak and white mask, followers of the man, a few words entered her mind.

Death eater. Lord Voldemort.

Lord Voldemort walked amongst his followers, pulling masks off certain people causing them to fall to their knees, some slight or other against him, something to do with Azkaban whatever that was, he repaired Wormtail's hand, a new silvery one, then he turned his eyes to Harry.

A duel?

Louise had to admire the audacity of Voldemort, and pity Harry's stupidity, did he think he was going to win? Surrounded by the enemy, even if Harry beat the leader, the idea of him being let go was unfathomable, these people might fake honor, but kidnapping and hostage taking, she doubted it, though assuming it was a memory then clearly Harry had won the day.

The spells fired, few words muttered as almost invisible bolts of energy were fired and deflected, the sheer reflexes of the pair was impressive, but Harry was losing, it was obvious to see, the older more experienced man was gaining the upper hand, but Harry refused to give.

Then it happened, two attacks, beams of power lanced and reached each other, resonance, the meeting point sparked and boiled and bubbled, pushing to and fro, a flash of light appeared and everything stopped.

The fight, the spell, frozen like a painting, several spectral images appeared behind Harry, the dead boy from earlier, an old man he didn't recognise and two others that shared a similarity to Harry, the man looked the splitting image.

"Who are you?" The hissing voice of Voldemort asked, his head turning at a clearly inhuman angle to look at her. "You are not here, no, no, why?"

Louise backed away moving towards Harry, the figure didn't move seemingly frozen in place, her position closer to Harry now but almost half way between them.

"Do not worry, he is weak." Louise jumped as a woman's voice spoke from her right, the woman whose hand was on Harry's shoulder. "You broke his connection, the last traces are in you, as are ours, his memories have our power, we will cleanse you, but please, help Harry, he needs support."

Louise found herself nodding even as the man next to the woman grinned roguishly. Time resumed as suddenly as it stopped, the spell broke a moment later as the spectral beings rushed Voldemort.

Harry dashed towards the boy his wand flying out summoning the cup and instantly he disappeared.

Her eyes opened to the ceiling of her room, she rubbed her eyes before feeling a slight wetness on her nose, rubbing it a small thick liquid appeared on her fingers, even in the pale light she could see it was black, the same colour as that from Harry's head, she groaned, she wasn't sleeping tonight.

**Guest Room – Next Morning**

Harry's morning was a torrent of emotion and confusion, the first most pressing thing was the clearly unknown location, it was like the first day at Hogwarts, unfamiliar but strangely welcoming, like a weight had been lifted.

The lack of nightmares too, no recurring dream of Cedric dying and Voldemort laughing, he still had the dream but once, and with nowhere near the clarity of punch he had been over the last few weeks.

Then it hit him, he was bound, tied to another, lying in bed he eyed the markings on his hand, the wound no longer raw, the symbols now clear to him, for a brief moment they flashed, a soft female voice spoke in his head to obey his master but he put it down, the tingling feeling like an Imperius curse was swept aside easily.

He felt anger at this, did the girl know, Louise, he reminded himself, she seemed on the level with him, a little abrasive and awkward, but honestly how did you treat someone like him, or him her?

Breathe, he took several in slow methodical steps, Hermione told him to do that before tests and other stressful situations, usually he didn't have time in the middle of a duel or battle, but during tests it seemed to work.

Kicking the covers off his surprisingly warm bed he looked out the window, it was light, barely, the sun was peaking from behind the horizon, a mixture of pinks, blue and gold, he scratched himself, his chest a bit itchy from whatever passed as soap, it had been coarse, the bath was fine however.

The clothing however left something to be desired, it almost felt like riding clothes, a crop and he would be ready to go fox hunting.

"Tally ho." Harry mocked from in front of the mirror.

Deciding to leave the room and look around he made his way downstairs, the wafting of fresh bread in the air remind him of those trips to the bakers near the corner shop though without the chugging of the bread slicers.

Looking around the commons area he headed for the bookshelf, he liked books, they had been a refuge for him over the years and curiosity over the idea of what passed for books wherever he was got the better of him.

The book he picked up reminded him a little of Aunt Petunia's readers digest books, a myriad of coloured leather bound books with course stitched pages, the writing was generally elegant but in some books even and clearly printed, he couldn't understand any of the words, sighing at this he returned the small pile of books he had looked through back in place.

Exploring more he looked over the various oil paintings lining the walls, some small no bigger than a foot wide others larger, the largest almost two meters wide showing a battle, a pair of ship of the lines broadsiding each other, Harry frowned, if he was reading it right, the white on the painting looked more like clouds than surf, were they flying?

"Oh? Sir Harry, you're up." A voice from only a few feet from him caused him to jump.

The maid Siesta had appeared from a door near him carrying a neatly folded bundle of his clothing.

"Hullo, Siesta?" Her nod made him breathe in relief for getting it right. "Are they flying or in the ocean?"

Harry wasn't counting anything out, the Weasley's car flew, Hagrid's bike flew why not a ship?

"Yes, I am not too sure but I believe that was a famous Albion battle almost two centuries ago between loyalist and rebels, both were the flagships of their fleet." Siesta replied squinting at the painting. "Yes, the Royal Sovereign and the Union."

A brief pause as Harry continued looking at the detailed and well-made painting, it was almost sad that it didn't move around like those from his world.

"Sir Harry, I have finished cleaning your clothes, however I think the trousers are still a little damp, I'm sorry." Siesta held the clothing up before bowing slightly.

"Don't be, jeans ain't the best to air dry." Harry knew that from laundry in the Dursley's, the airing cupboard being the best place for them.

The main door opening broke any further comments and conversation as a ragged looking pinkette slowly made her way into the tower, her eyes lidded and hair while neat still had random strands sticking out, a monumental yawn covered by her hand before she noticed the pair.

Her face flushed, any tiredness in her eyes vanished before she set a glare at the pair brandishing her wand.

"Neither of you saw that." Harry had moved in front of Siesta at this his own wand out and runes glowing slightly.

Louise deflated seeing Harry's wand, the reminder that this person had seen some bad stuff and wasn't going to back down halted her spell.

"Sorry." She muttered. "Had a bad night's sleep." Her glare returned full force aimed at Harry who looked annoyed and confused at the situation. "Still we got an hour until breakfast, I guess I can help you out if you ask, as you liaisons of course."

**Great Hall**

The hour passed with Louise giving him some basic information on the continent and the countries in it, the name Albion reminding him of Roman history and the name of Britain almost two millennia ago, the fact it had towns like London and Newcastle only adding to his confusion.

The great hall reminded him very much of Hogwarts only on a smaller scale, three long tables ran the length of the room with a fourth table running perpendicular to the others and on a raised dais, clearly the teachers area.

Students had began to trickle in over the arrival of him and Louise, a few sitting already but the majority entering en-mass just as the first teacher arrived, looking around Harry noticed the students groups by cape colour, the brown capes behind him and those with purple capes on the table in front of him.

"Do the capes signify year groups?" Harry whispered to Louise.

"Yes, brown for first, black for second, purple for third." Louise explained with oddly placed pride.

As everyone sat down Harry felt eyes watching him, he had become more sensitive to it over the years, his mistake with the whole Quirrell/Snape issue first year, the potential of Basilisk attacks second year, Dementors in the third year and upon hindsight Moody/Barty fourth year had his senses on a swivel.

Someone was scoping him out with no attempt to hide their interest, he looked around, and sighed in annoyance, it was easier to count those not staring and pointing at him, word travelled fast, without house divides like Hogwarts news would not be hindered as easily.

Harry watched as everyone quieted down as Osmond took to the dais, the servants bringing out plates of food and placing them in front of each person, Harry gulped as his stomach growled demanding feeding, it seemed Siesta was taking her duties very serious as she placed the plate with sliced meats, breads, some white block that may have been cheese and an assortment of other foods neatly arranged.

Osmond called for prayer, not wanting to stand out Harry bowed his head, mouthing his own pray to return home and hope that the headmaster had found something during the day before, he wasn't holding his breath, he was going into this calmly, he would act based on what he was told, assuming he believed them of course.

The prayer ended and the food was eaten, the semi hard white block was some form of curd and overall the meal was enjoyed, as they finished up Louise led Harry outside where the Zoo of animal waited, skirting around them Harry noticed servants setting up a series of tables and chairs.

"For the second years, today we get to know our familiars better, I guess in some way, I got it better."

Harry frowned at that, what the hell did she mean by that? He could guess she wasn't insulting him, but it still annoyed him to no end.

Entering another door on the same tower, a series of staircases led the duo higher up, pole-arm wielding guards stood near certain doors and Harry wondered how effective long weapons were in corridors, he could figure that were they to face a muggle with a sword they would win if they got their weapons down and held them off, but up close or against magicals they would lose.

Arriving at the top of a long flight of stairs they reached a door already opened, through it they could see Osmond levitating a stone hand towards the woman from yesterday, somehow the pair reaching the room before they had.

The out pointed finger running up the woman's back before it was hurled at the old pervert with excellent form, Harry idly wondering whether she would be a good Quidditch player.

"Ah, young Harry, Ms Valliere, I trust you both had a good evening?" Osmond spoke rubbing the bruise on his head.

The two stepped in, Harry saying nothing, while the night had been several factors better than those at the Dursley's he wasn't about to admit that to anyone yet.

"Ms Longueville, you are excused." The woman stood from her desk and left without a word, the sound of her even footfalls was mixed with those of a rapid ascent of another, an out of breath Colbert entered and shut the door.

"Sorry Osmond, I wanted to check something out, it didn't match."

"I see, that's too bad." Osmond rubbed his chin. "How to business, pink with frills."

Harry went to react as hostile pressure filled the room, Louise wand was already out and.

"Fireball!" Her wand pointed at the headmaster, the explosion ripping through the room leaving a slightly burnt Osmond coughing.

Harry stepped back from the girl, what kind of fireball was that? It was closer to Bombarda as a spell, the sound of squeaking was heard causing Harry to draw his own wand, the sound bringing its own set of problems.

"Now, now, don't get your panties in a bunch, hoho." Osmond wiped the soot away as a mouse hopped onto his shoulder. "Now Professor Colbert here has gone through a lot of our text, while we have nothing accessible relating to human summoning we did find something about similar runes."

Colbert placed a book on the desk opening it to the marked page, rows of unknown text filled the one page while half the second was filled with a drawing of a hand with similar runes.

"I, I can't read this." Harry admitted glumly, he at least acquitted them a little, clearly they were trying to help, though the binding was a big factor against them.

"You can't read?!" Louise spluttered.

"I can read just fine thank you, but not your language." Harry cast an annoyed look at the girl causing her to deflate as she remembered his foreign language from the day before. "Does it say anything about compulsion in the runes, I heard last night and this morning some woman urging me to obey."

Three shocked wide eyed looks aimed at him before two sets of eyes turned to Osmond, the man pulled out his pipe slowly taking a long toke before speaking.

"If I remember the spell correctly then there is something like that in the summoning, you must understand young Harry, some of these creatures are or were feral." He rubbed his chin. "Yes, the spell usually stuns the summon slightly, the binding then adds a mild desire to faithfully serve the master."

Harry's wand was again out of his pocket and pointing at Louise.

"I will not be a slave!" He roared magic filling the room.

"Please calm down young Harry, we will fix this." Osmond tried to placate the angry wizard.

"You expect me to be calm when I was told that?" Harry scoffed the end of his wand glowing brighter and slightly green. "Would you be calm torn from your home and enslaved without a choice?"

"Harry, don't, your parents wouldn't want you to do this." Louise pleaded.

All magic build-up vanished instantly as Harry turned his attention to the smaller girl next to him, his eyes seemed to glow the same colour his wand had seconds ago, she shrank back as he seemed to tower over her despite only a few inches difference.

"What did you say?" Harry's voice wavered between disgust and curiosity.

"L-last night, I, I had a dream, or nightmare." Louise mumbled. "A graveyard, you were there and…Lord Voldemort? You duelled, your parents appeared as ghosts, they spoke to me."

Harry's face morphed through a dozen expressions with confusion, hurt, rage, sadness and pain battled for dominance.

"Interesting, a link between your minds." Osmond cut in causing Colbert to sigh at him breaking the calm, Harry glared again at the old man.

"Back to the issue at hand." Harry felt exhausted already, too many emotions. "What ARE you going to do about the mind raping?"

"I'm afraid there is nothing we can do, the spell is cast, killing Ms Valliere is not an option, her death will kill you, you dying will not kill her however, the spell was designed like that, we never saw the need to change it, after all the spell dates back several thousand years."

Harry felt like his arm was made of lead, his stomach dropped at this, tears streamed down his face even if he refused to voice his cry, it was hopeless, his lot in life, to be under the thumb of another, irrelevant who it was.

A hesitant hand gripped his arm, he looked down again through blurry eyes, the girl seemed unsure how to act and just held his wrist.

"For what it's worth young Harry, I am terribly sorry, I didn't factor that into this." Harry rubbed his eyes, red rings surrounding them as he glared again at Osmond, as if that would make him feel better. "I will do what I can to look into this and see if you can be freed and returned home."

Harry nodded not trusting his voice to spew explicative that would make even a sailor applaud.

"I think headmaster enrolling young Harry in the school would be a good idea, it will give him a more legitimate reason to stay and we can work on finding a way to return him home." Colbert spoke changing the direction of the conversation. "On another note, have you noticed anything strange with your runes?"

Harry nodded again showing the glowing runes where he held the wand.

"Then the records are correct Osmond, knowing that I got a better lead on finding out how to free him."

"Well young Harry, I take it you attend a magic school in your country?"

"Yes, Hogwarts." He replied slowly. "I'm a fourth year going on fifth year."

"How many years do you attend?" Colbert asked with curiosity.

"Seven, we start when we are 11."

"You're younger than me?" Louise gasped, both Osmond and Colbert winced further, the boy was 15 at best, the bad news just kept coming.

"Well, I would say you have a good grasp of magic, but, I feel like yours if different to ours, I would suggest either the first or second year for you."

Harry paused did he want to attend? Sure it made sense but was there some angle they were playing? He couldn't work it out, there were too many things rolling through his head, there wasn't much choice, if they were to get him home he needed to be at this academy, so he was left with a choice.

He could only hope it was different from his world, a place where the media scrutinised his every action, his every word, his every friend, where half the time every action was heroic, every friend was one of light and other times every action was that of a dark lord in the making, each friend a budding follower of darkness, he doubted it, already everyone knew he was a 'summon' a magic freak.

"Ok, if I have to I will choose."

**A/N: And Cut, Again**. **Unlike the original version I know now which year I am using, I hope this is a good few steps up from my old version, I think so but please drop a review or PM and let me know.**

**Hopefully I explained the dream sequence better this time, I wasn't going for FS/N rather a Horcrux implanted memory, a link between the soul, Voldemort and Harry, Thankfully a small 'essence' of the ghosts remained in Voldemort and went into Harry via the link and then Louise.**

**This one is almost 50% longer than the original capping 11k without A/N easily, tried to play it differently and cut some pointless conversations out while adding some world building and cracking open a few starting relationships (not romantic, yet), Louise will be a lot friendlier in this to him than the old version, Siesta will become close (considering what HOH will deal her I cut her slack here), next two chapters depart completely from canon in terms of story arc, hope to see you there.**


	2. Meet the Family

**A/N: Sorry for the delay but this ain't dead. XD**

**Quick note first off why this took so long, rewrite, simple, started off going down a canon track first, had to slap myself for that one, choosing the year he would attend, an alternate version of the Guiche scene that blocked me at about 2k words, then I decided to completely avoid following canon.**

**This went south in its own way, so I ended up going some light research on the 16****th****-18****th**** century for references, trouble that magitek kinda throws its own wrench in that, but my love of history was stoked and I went wandering off there. (Sorry orz).**

**A second note, I reread chapter 1….and cringed at certain points with dialogue and pacing, I have rewritten it, aside from the shared opening scene at the Dursleys it's a complete rewrite, so please check that out and drop me either a review on the new one or PM me it.**

**Disclaimer: Familiar of Zero and Harry Potter are not owned by me.**

**Headmasters Office**

Harry took a deep breath as he decided his current fate, first or second year, as far as choices went they were simple enough, the biggest problem however was himself, Louise, his current lifeline in this odd world was a second year, it would make sense to join the second years, but the larger age gap was the problem.

The first years had less of the age gap but he would see less of his dependant, and learning the new system was easier from the start, but how would they react to knowing he was summoned? It felt to him like it would be the whole BWL thing again, still he reached a decision.

"I would like to join the first years Headmaster." Harry stated with surprising firmness.

Out of the corner of his eye he noted Louise looking both rejected and relieved which only confused him more.

"I see, yes I suppose the first years would be a better choice, I was going to suggest it anyway." Osmond stated puffing his oversized pipe. "Still you have come here with nothing, let's see here."

Osmond began rummaging through his desk, a series of books and paper work quickly cluttering his desk.

"Ah, here it is." He waved a small file and a rolled scroll with a sealed ribbon on it. "This is expressed permission from myself for the carrier to abstain from school for the noted duration, Ms Valliere here is quite studious so I believe we can give her a week off to help sort Harry in."

Osmond stated looking through what was clearly Louise's last term report. Louise nodded a small blush at being recognised for something even if it was her work ethic. Osmond quickly filled in the scroll with the name of the persons exempt from tuition and for the duration before locking the seal.

"So I would suggest as soon as today you head to the Capital and get Harry his first year equipment."

Harry felt like this was a more overt variation of his first trip down Diagon Alley, he was however wondering again about payment, sure he had a few coins in his pocket that he might be able to exchange since they were gold and gold was in his world at least a universal standard currency, and unlike his world there was unlikely to be a trust vault with his name on it.

"What? I have to pay for his stuff?" Louise blurted out.

"Yes Ms Valliere, he is your familiar, you would be expected to care for whatever you summoned be it a mouse." Osmond pointed to the one napping on his shoulder. "A dragon or even a fellow mage."

"Yes...yes you are right headmaster." Louise deflated realising she was being her stubborn self.

"Excellent, now young Harry, I look forward to seeing what you are capable of while here, I along with Professor Colbert here will look up anything we can about human familiars and reverse summons, but, hmm, maybe, no, later, have a safe trip both of you."

"Come Sir Harry." Louise headed for the door, her own questions about how to address him in her mind. For now until things calmed down and both were of the right mindset it was the best way to address him.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as the pair left the room and headed down to the courtyard.

"The stables, we will get two horses and head for the Capital, my." Louise face fell even as she clutched the scroll tighter. "My family manor is there, we will stay there a few nights, you can ride a horse right?"

Harry paused at that, could he? Give him a broom and he was fine, but a horse.

"Well I did ride Buckbeak the year before last, and I did sit on a Thestral and I'm good on a broom."

Louise stopped at that, eyeing the boy in confusion, her mind trying to work through her knowledge of what a Buckbeak was or Thestral, she understood a broom but she could only guess that they might be used to fly.

"Any of those a horse?"

"Buckbeak is a Hippogriff, Thestrals are a type of winged horse."

Louise nodded though the idea he had ridden a Hippogriff was impressive, clearly there was even more to the boy to have access to such a noble animal, arriving at the stables Louise picked two Palfrey for the trip, securing both saddles she led them to Harry.

"I need to pick up some of my things before we leave, wait here."

Harry nodded dumbly as Louise turned and walked off heading towards the dorm tower. Standing around going nothing was not something Harry liked doing, for one thing he seemed to stick out like a sore thumb, at least in his world, he always felt like the poor snake that Dudley tormented at the zoo, something on display, something to point at and have unreasonable demands made of despite not owing anyone anything quite the opposite if he went by the books about him.

Being bound to a girl didn't help, whatever his duties were he most likely wouldn't like them even if she seemed somewhat sympathetic to him, he stared down at his branding even as the horses moved slightly, he switched his gaze to them briefly realising they were waiting impatiently, gingerly he patted the two horses to reassure them before returning to looking at his brand.

The runes softly began glowing as he felt another Imperius type attack, the words 'obey' and 'live for master' seemed to wash from the thing and he threw it off without effort, he sighed deeply, it wasn't her fault, even if he took his annoyance out on her it wouldn't help.

"I'm back." The voice cut through the silence and Harry saw Louise carrying a somewhat bulky satchel of her own, by the way it bulged he could guess she had a few books in there, most likely school material for coming lessons, he idly wondered how well Hermione would get along with another studious person with a strong will, he decided it probably wasn't worth the headache to know.

Watching Louise affix the bag to the strapping of the saddle she paused and began fidgeting, it took Harry only a moment to realise why, he rolled his eyes before moving towards her and cupping his hands, her eyes widened before a small flush spread across her face, with the same grace and dignity afforded a noble she used his hand as a step and climbed into the seat.

Harry however climbed in with less grace, not used to saddles he found himself staring up at the flank of his horse, a brief snort from higher up showed his tumble had gotten a reaction from the pinkette, it didn't help his left foot was still in the stirrup and with some effort he freed himself and tried again with more luck.

Finally sitting in the saddle he waited for Louise, ensuring both herself and himself were secure and their horses were not skittish she slowly set her horse to a canter, watching her actions Harry too followed suit and within moments the pair had left the confines of the schools outer wall and towards the Capital.

The journey towards the city was slow, both on the count neither was in too much of a hurry and to ensure neither fell off their horse, over the few hours travel Harry's eyes however kept tracking to the twin moons hanging in the sky, they didn't seem to move, he knew his worlds moon was tidally locked but had an orbit, these seemed to be affixed to a point like someone had painted them onto the sky.

"Whoa." Harry exclaimed as he noticed his horse veering off as his eyes left the road, bringing the creature back into line he still wished for a flying creature, much faster and in his opinion flying was one of the most wondrous things in the world and gave him a sense of freedom he rarely had in any capacity.

"Almost there, see." Louise called out from slightly in front bringing Harry's attention back from his horse.

Sure enough the city was large, not as big as some of the larger towns in Britain and certainly not as big as London, but it was impressive, it reminded Harry of one of the towns Dudley sacked on his Sega game Powermonger, he shudders remembering the glee in Dudley's eyes as his army hunted down fleeing villagers.

As the pair reached a fork in the road Louise took a route taking the pair away from the city, confused but accepting that Louise knew best in relation to her home country, passing through a small wooded area they came across a crystal clear lake, a picturesque scene like a photo of the lake district, behind it a large manor spread out, from the path, it was clearly their destination.

The manor was well tended too, to Harry having suffered European history in school for 5 years before Hogwarts he knew a small amount about castles and manors, 17th to 18th century in design, white stone with a red tiled roof, walls surrounding the building with grounds filled with well-tended bushes and flower gardens.

The cobbled path Louise led them up saw the pair arrive at a small stable, a few again well-tended horses and a man in overalls working with hay, he stopped as the two arrived.

"Mistress Louise." He bowed slightly. "We were not expecting you."

He rushed over to help her down as Harry clambered off his horse, careful to not get his feet trapped in the stirrups, landing heavily on his feet he felt his arse was numb and his testicles raw from the bouncy ride.

"These horses are property of the academy, I expect them to be treated as such. Sir Harry, come."

Louise walked away without another word, Harry looked at the man who was bowing slightly and shrugged his shoulders before following her towards the main door.

The door was lavish and pretentious, rich red mahogany, a coat of arms that was on each half of the door, a pair of guards carrying pikes and swords stood at attention, seeing her they bowed and opened the door which didn't even squeak on its hinges.

Entering the large hall Harry could almost hear music as if he had stepped into a period piece, a pair of waiting maids a blonde and brunette again they bowed and welcomed them in, Harry's eyes tracked the room, tables of well carved wood and expensive furnishing showed that they came from wealth and prestige, easily working out the idea to intimidate guests if the size of the building hadn't done so.

A staircase took centre place, large and ornate with a divide going to what Harry had dubbed the East and West wings for eases sake, and there above the stairs easily 15 ft. each, a pair of portraits that he could guess were the current heads of the family.

The one Louise's mother by his guess had the same pink hair by the pictures image, a stern but noble expression and eyes that even in the paint it seemed to judge him, certainly if the size of the manor and expensive furnishings didn't cow the guest this picture would, Harry himself felt suitably cowed.

The portrait of the man showed blonde hair, another firm expression that yelled 'I have power', a moustache and piercing eyes, another person that seemed to intimidate him through a static medium, at least these ones didn't move or talk.

"You two, prepare a bath for me and my guest, we smell like horses." Louise commanded, Harry smelt himself and did notice a scent he attributed to a farm. "And prepare some new clothing for Sir Harry, something suitable for a noble."

The pair bowed before the blonde moved towards him, a gesture to follow, looking at Louise she nodded before heading off to her own destination. With that Harry followed the young woman who took him into what could only be a walk in closet.

Harry spent the next few minutes being measured by the maid, with the measurements down he was lead to a bath, a makeshift heater for water was already working and the heated water was flowing into a metal tub, the servant working ensuring the water temperature was comfortable then added a small bag of powder to the water turning the clean water a misty colour as the scent of rose and other unidentifiable medicinal herbs filled the room.

"Can I take your clothes Sir?" The maid asked waiting her head bowed.

Harry paused, he wasn't used to such things, less so getting naked around a woman, his mind rebooted quickly to respond.

"Uh, can you wait outside while I, uh."

"Of course Sir." The maid smiled as she moved out of the room.

Harry quickly removed his old clothing smelling the scent of horse, it was unpleasant to him like the clothing itself, he was tempted to ask they be burned but for now, they were his clothes, it Louise was going to get him something more suitable he would still need them for now.

Picking up the cloth nearby he did his best to shield his modesty as he opened the door a peak, the maid stood her back to the door but turned as the door opened.

"Please wash these for me." He handed the clothing to the woman who nodded and left with the bundle of modern garments.

Turning around he looked at the bath, metal, it would lose heat quickly and he wondered if the bath had lead in it, though they should know the properties of lead and wouldn't use it in these instances, stepping into the bath, the warm water flowed over him and for the first time in over a day he felt the tension leave him.

**20 Minutes Later**

Having finished his bath there was a knock on the door, Harry had panicked slightly as he tried to dry before he had moved to the door, his 'new' clothing, the neatly folded bundle had reminded him a bit of the Yule ball and that was a disaster.

He had taken the clothes with a thanks, unfolding and looking over the new clothing a pair of silk breeches and deep blue knee length trousers, a white silk shirt with ruffled trim and waistcoat that matched the short trousers, a pair of smart shoes with a single buckle on each, it took no small amount of time to work out the direction of the breeches having thought of long johns and their rear hatch, finally changed he checked himself in the mirror and left the bathroom before being led down to the living room where after another twenty minutes Louise appeared wearing a dress that reached the ground and screamed noble to him.

Sitting down next to him the pair moved into a semi awkward silence, the only sound being the crackling of the fireplace and grandfather clock in the corner, Harry squirmed uncomfortably, he wasn't sure why he was sat there doing nothing, he didn't like doing nothing, it reminded him of the cupboard under the stairs when counting spiders and dust bunnies were the only hobbies.

The door opened quickly causing Harry to stand even as Louise too bolted up, a woman in smart travel clothing marched in an annoyed look on her face, he could tell she was either Louise's mother or older sister, the matching hair colour and figure being the giveaway.

"This better be good Lo." She paused seeing the strange boy in what she recognised as wearing some clothing set aside for Count Wardes. "Who are you?"

"Harry Potter ma-am." Harry barely got his voice out, the picture of the woman didn't do her force of personality justice.

"Hello Mother." Louise spoke regally. "I have come home."

"Yes I can see that Louise, now why is there some strange mouse of a boy here and more importantly why are you home?"

Louise blanched at the force and tone in her words, Louise already knew her mother was assuming the worst about a lot of things, she would need to be careful unless the wrong idea came about and someone ended up being executed for it.

"Mother, this here is Harry Potter." Louise noticed her eyes narrow, a get on with it tone. "I summoned him during the springtime familiar summoning ritual, he is a mage."

To the point, who, how and what we explained the where was obvious though the why was unanswerable by either of them.

"You summoned a mage?" Karin looked at Harry. "Stand up straight boy, if you are a noble then act like one."

Harry felt a twinge of anger, he had gone along with a lot in life, he had been looked down on and ridiculed by many, assumptions piled on top of him, being here was somewhat a breath of fresh air, no expectations, but again he was wrong.

His eyes locked with hers, doing his best to maintain them, his mind running the worst things he could think of, Uncle Vernon angry, Dudley and his gang, Voldemort, the Basilisk, Dementors and the Graveyard, he found himself holding it, channelling the anger at her.

"So, you do have a spine, honestly when you speak I hardly hear you." Karin sat down in a chair opposite, her posture straight and poise. "Sit down the pair of you."

The pair complied as Karin began thinking, a moment passed before she turned her attention to Harry.

"I am Karin De Valliere, mother to Louise, you may address me as Lady Valliere or Duchess."

"Yes Lady Valliere." Harry complied, like his own country, addressing the royals and nobles by titles made sense.

Her gaze returned to Louise her expression hardening causing the girl to fold in even as her position remained static.

"Louise do you have any idea what you have done? This could ruin the family, you bound a mage, you summoned a mage, what if he is royalty? Are you?" Her last question turned to Harry who shook his head.

"Mother, the summoning happened, how am I to blame for that?" Louise voice cracked at this, her face flush with embarrassment and hurt.

"Because you bound a magic user."

Louise had to admit that, they knew he was a mage and still went with it, far be it for her to reply that Old Osmond told her too, passing the blame wasn't something she could do even when it was technically right.

"Still, maybe we can fix this, if it got out or when it gets out the other nobles will use this to chip away at our powerbase and support, Louise, you are to do nothing and say nothing about this until I speak to your father, Potter, you too are not to say anything that can harm this family."

"But mother, we need to pick up stuff for Sir Harry, for his enrolment in the academy."

Karin paused at this, so someone had enrolled him already, it was workable with that, she could hopefully limit the damage done to their position.

"Fine, you can go into town, but do not tell anyone anything, but you must use your own money for this, I expect you to take responsibility for your actions."

Louise bristled as a flash of anger filled her, of course she would take responsibility, she was a noble.

"Then leave my sight, I need to think, Potter, it was…nice to meet you."

"You too Lady Valliere." Harry knew neither comment was meant, just false politeness, he was used to that, but he wondered what was going to happen to him, it didn't sound like he was to be quietly killed, he doubted it, he hoped anyway, if they tried his wand wouldn't be stayed and someone would find a reductio between their eyes.

With the pair quickly removing themselves from the room they both moved up stairs, Harry following Louise more than anything, upon feeling 'safe' their pair released a breath both had been consciously holding.

"Reminds me of a noble Mrs Weasley." Harry mumbled.

He could see the overbearing nature of the woman, give Molly the howler voice permanently and the expression behind it and there were similarities, he shuddered at the idea of someone that was virtually family being like that, he gained a small amount of respect for Louise for having to deal with that.

With that done and it being close to lunch the pair departed the manor, mostly under Louise's suggestion, Harry agreed with neither wanting to be near Karin at the moment, and putting off getting Harry's supplies was a poor idea with the current issues.

The carriage ride was fine, having been in them before though pulled by invisible death horses, Harry spent the time looking out the window at the scenery, the outer wooded region with several cut down trees most likely for wood fires and several fields with crops he couldn't identify.

"How are you with Swords?" The words came out of nowhere and cause Harry to turn looking confused at the older shorter girl.

"Huh?"

"Swords, regardless of anything as a fellow noble you must have some training with a sword." Louise cast an annoyed look at him. "Besides integrating your wand into a sword serves two purposes in battle."

Harry snorted, memories of the last time he handled a sword coming to his mind, not the best day, but few were, he got by however.

"Took down a thousand year old Basilisk when I was 12, nearly died, first and only time I used a sword."

"Then we need a sword, teaching you proper etiquette and manners is important." Louise nodded to herself even running what a Basilisk was.

"Well as long my teacher is better than your one, you could learn a thing or two." Harry's smirk was mixed with Louise flushing and casting a glare at him.

The arrival at the town saw the dirt roads change, a mixture of some paved areas mixed with older cobblestone roads made the journey into the town more uncomfortable that it should be, Harry looked out the curtained window at the sights, it wasn't Oliver twist, for one there was no singing.

It was dirtier too, horse draw carts moved up and down roads a few coachmen argued as they blocked each other's journey and people milled around, the sound was frightening, yells of services available from street corners and carts mixed with horses, carts and general hubbub.

The smell wasn't great either, sewage, raw foods, horse and general bodies, at least the pollution levels were non-existent, but Harry was of two minds there.

"Urgh, that smell." Harry had sat near Goyle when he had let one off in second year, this was worse, but not much.

"You get used to it, but it is unpleasant after being in the countryside for a while, there are laws against certain businesses in certain areas, bakeries and certain foods are away from this." Louise stated herself finding the smell a little bad but used to it. "Ah, Driver stop here please."

The carriage drew to a stop outside tailors, a few wooden mannequins with various clothing styles they could make sat inside a window, the coachman opened the door allowing the two to exit the coach and step onto the streets.

Entering the shop they were greeted by a man of about 40 years, a well-groomed moustache matching he well-tended dark hair, the place was largely empty outside of a small wooden pigeon holed dresser filled with clothing waiting to be picked up.

A single door led into the back, a few voices heard from there and from their standing they could see a half dozen people drinking from mugs and sewing clothing as they spoke.

"Can I help you sir? Madam?" The man spoke with an impeccably polite tone.

"Yes, I am looking for a few sets of clothing for him, similar in style to what he is wearing."

The man nodded before ducking behind the counter and pulling out a small parchment and tape, without a word he began measuring Harry, gently but authoritively moving his limbs to better gauge his measurements.

"Any colour preference?" The man asked circling his waist.

"Uh, gold and red." Harry replied not expecting the question.

"Red with gold trim."

"Some in green too." Louise stated before a light blush appeared. "It goes well with your eyes."

"I have some reds and greens in the back, might I suggest silver trim on the green." The tailor finished his measurements before darting into the back.

Harry didn't like the idea of green and silver, Slytherin colours, but he was getting the clothing for free technically, and while older fashioned than his hand-me-downs, a far sight nicer too, with that he would suck it up and accept it.

The tailors returned with the cloth squares and laid them out on the counter, three reds appeared, a near maroon, a Venetian red and a bright rich scarlet, two greens too, one a dark green almost olive green the other a forest green. Choosing the Venetian and olive colours the man quickly filled out the order appraising his current clothing.

"Three sets of clothing plus labour 300 new gold."

"200 new gold or we find another tailor."

"250, I will throw in a hat."

"220 and no hat."

Harry watched the almost tennis match barter, he guessed these were times when fixed prices were not yet set and negotiations were a vital part of shopping and buying goods, if he were to at least live in this land or world for a while he would need to turn his usual breakfast and snack trading into a more common form.

"235 and the hat." Louise continued.

"Deal, it will take two days to make the three sets, and what is the name?"

"De Valliere." The man's face dropped slightly at that before nodding.

"Is there anything else I can help with?" His smile returned though he looked more nervous now, his hands wringing slightly at this point.

"No, I expect good work, good day."

"Good day." Harry also spoke for the first time in a while a reply came before the pair exited the building to the waiting coach.

Getting back in the coach slowly took off down the street no real destination at this point leaving the pair in silence as they decided their next course.

**De Valliere Manor**

Karin sat at the small desk in her own private study reading up on the notes she had found regarding the laws, her options were limited but there was a way for her to reduce the prestige loss from her youngest daughters blunder, though when she thought more on it, someone high up had authorised the binding, heads would roll when she found out.

"I hope this is important honey, pulling me from my weekly game." Her husband Duke Nicolas De La Valliere entered her room.

Karin frowned slightly, pet names were something she wasn't fond of, few would dare call her them, her husband notwithstanding, while not at her level of power he was close and didn't fear her, but anyone willing to court the 'heavy wind' clearly wasn't going to back down, seven rejections of him showed he wasn't one to take no as an answer.

"It is, sit down, dear." Karin's own grimace was only marred by the slight crease around her eyes showing a slight smile, only something the Queen or he would notice. "You know our daughter Louise had her summoning ritual yesterday." His nod was halted by his eyes widening.

"She failed then?" His fist thumped the desk in annoyance. "Damn it, I will speak to Osmond get another go at it, this is an embarrassment, and what will Waldes say?"

"Calm down dear." Karin chastised her husband. "Louise didn't fail, no, this is much worse."

"By Brimir she summoned and bound a mage." He stated after a few seconds of silence.

Karin's raised an eyebrow speculatively, while Nicolas wasn't under any stretch an idiot in fact he was highly intelligent by his increasingly thought out romancing of her, she could guess he was guessing and chose the worst thing that came to mind, it was sad how this often resulted in the correct answer.

"She did, though Louise showed some dignity in not blaming someone else, we now have a young mage, younger than her bound to her."

"And there isn't a known way to break the binding, outside killing him of course." Karin nodded to his train of thought.

"A last option, I don't think he is local, nor does he seem to be from this continent, as such I have yet to dismiss it completely."

"Well you clearly have a plan." Nicolas replied before Karin pushed the note across the desk.

Karin watched as her husband of many years, many annoyances, many an enjoyable evening and the resulting three beautiful daughters read through the pages, finishing them before stacking them neatly he pushed them back towards her.

"Hmm, did I ever tell you how much I love your devious mind?" He rounded the desk quickly before sweeping her up bridal style.

"Put me down you idiot." Karin blushed slightly as she found herself taken to the bedroom.

**Tristain Capitol**

The pair had stopped earlier at an inn for some lunch before shopping for a weapon of some kind for Harry, swords seemed to be the most common form of mage based foci but they weren't limiting their options.

Having already visited one shop, a store keeper with questionable morals had first claimed to be a legitimate business, which itself raised a few warning flags, more in Harry's mind, his attempt at palming off a highly decorative gold and jewel encrusted sword for an exorbitant amount didn't help, the fact Louise almost bought it too made the shop a complete miss.

Harry knew little about swords, he knew there were many types, his history lessons told him as much, Celtic and early Saxton lessons gave some insight into what was to be hung on the wall and what was unfortunately swung at someone's body.

The next store was one selling bows though a few bulky pistols were set around the place, old matchlock pistols and even rifles and the rarer and at least to these people modern flintlock muskets.

In the end it was decided that the weapon trip was a bust, with little skill or training in such weapons the pair agreed if this was indeed happening, even with his runes giving him skills to use any weapon it was a matter of comfort and personal taste, the family armoury had a few weapons they could borrow to test, the plans made saw them heading back to the manor.

The ride back had been silent, aside from ordering the clothing they had made no progress on anything else, they still had about a week so it wasn't a rush. Arriving back at the manor the maids intercepted them before they could enter the main foyer.

"Lady Louise, your parents are indisposed at this time, it would be prudent to not go to the second floor." The one spoke with a light flush on her face.

"Ugh, fine, I was heading out back anyway, ready the training ground for myself and Sir Harry's use."

The maid nodded leaving quickly before Louise guided Harry to a room deep on the ground floor, a large armoury, wooden racks filled the area along with mannequins holding basic steel armour, the more ornamental and expensive sets elsewhere.

A variety of swords from short swords to long swords, claymores to great swords and bastard swords, amongst them a series of bows of long and short variety and a few crossbows and even a few muskets.

Grabbing one of each sword sheathing them, a series of arrows in quivers and even a musket the duo left laden down like they were off to war, a few odd looks from staff as they made their was outside to the rear of the manor and the open fields that spread out to the nearest mountain.

The grounds themselves were quiet well-tended, the flower beds and bushes denoting the garden area were trimmed meticulously and gravel paths raked flat, a large tree planted as a centre focus of the garden too was well cared for.

"That tree is important to mother and father." Louise stated as they passed it.

Harry wanted to ask if this trees importance was down to a proposal or maybe and just as likely one of her sisters or even herself being conceived under it, he decided he didn't want to know and just nodded.

The training area they arrived in was on one of the flatter areas, a few hay targets set up at various intervals, a few dummies of straw and a table for holding the various weapons, a second table also set up with a pitcher of fresh juice and two chairs with a butler and maid waiting quietly for them when they took a break.

"Either of you know anything about weapons?" Louise asked the pair, a brief pause before replies in the negative. "Very well, return to your duties, but return here in two hours, we will be finished then."

The two bowed and left at that prompting as Harry lay the weapons down on the table, picking up the short sword he attached the belt around his waist before drawing the blade, his runes began glowing as all the information regarding how to use the weapon filled his mind.

"This is going to come down to personal preference over skill." Harry stated looking at Louise, her facial expression changed to realisation of this.

A few test swings and thrusts of the blade told him everything he needed to know, one thing was he would need to bulk up a bit, while not scrawny or anything, in fact aside from some latent malnutrition that had largely been dealt with from years of good eating at Hogwarts he was in good shape, years of chores did that, but the unfamiliar use of a weapon worked muscles he didn't often use and they would need working on to reduce fatigue.

The bows too had the same issue, arm muscles and chest muscles rarely used protested after a few draws of the string, he quite liked the bow, sure it was quite tall about his height but he liked the weapon, years of history and tales of famous archers in school made him quite impartial to them, the 100 years' war and English and Welsh archers cutting down heavily armoured French knights at Agincourt, the Norman archer that hit King Harold at Hastings and Robin Hood.

The last was of course the less exhaustive weapons, while the crossbow needed cocking it didn't require being held by his arm, the musket was even less so, the small wax paper contained musket ball, primer and gunpowder, the latter two in two separate seals for pre loading and post loading.

It was with a frightening ease to use, like all weapons, he could guess he could easily fire 4 rounds a minute in any weather and up to 8 a minute on a normal day, he would show Sharpe a thing or two about being one of the chosen men.

"So anything you like?" Louise called out from the table sipping her drink.

Harry wasn't sure, the runes made him good with everything, that said he liked the bow and gun but his spells were ranged too, so something like a short range weapon was really needed at least for as long as he was here.

Walking over to the table Harry picked up the glass Louise had made for him, his hand trembling slightly as all the workout now came back to make him pay, gripping it with both hands he drunk greedily before rubbing both arms.

"Do you have any strength?" Louise asked a mixture of disbelief and disgust.

"Nothing on those muscles." He admitted scowling at her.

"Hmm, I guess we need to work on that, as my familiar your skills reflect on me too, train that up."

"Yes master." His voice was layered thick with sarcasm and bile making Louise pause.

"Sorry, it's annoying you are younger and have better magic, but I am better with swords while being smaller."

"And a girl?"

"What?" Louise spat out shocked and annoyed at the slight. "My mother is one of the strongest mages in the country, why would you think I am weak?"

Harry had the common decency to look ashamed at that, his own mother and Hermione were considered two top witches though it did seem like she had misunderstood him even if he was in the wrong.

"Sorry, I meant physically, men are generally considered stronger, though it doesn't make me feel better either."

The awkward silence that followed had both shifting slightly in their seats, the sounds of light sipping of their respective drinks and slight clatter of glasses on the table only making it more obvious.

It was twenty minutes later that the servants turned up again, a brief pause at the atmosphere before they moved to clean up, the area filled with carved off bits of dummies and shredded and holed targets, the two mages leaving side by side but still not speaking during the walk.

The evening passed by much the same, the meal in the lavish dining room had been muted outside of asking for a condiment, while the meal was certainly fancy in regards to presentation to Harry it may as well have been cardboard for all the enjoyment he was having with it, Louise parents also did not join them but they were somewhere in the manor.

With a full stomach Harry had settled into his room, fine well-made heavy furnishings, he had idly tried lifting the cabinet to find it was solid wood over the veneer type that was prevalent in his world. In the end aching limbs and general fatigue took over and he climbed into bed to sleep.

The morning came without any dreams or nightmares, he idly wondered why the image of Cedric dying no longer haunted his memories in the way it had over the weeks since the end of the triwizard cup.

With no conclusion to draw Harry was of mixed feelings on this, did he deserve to just drop it and move on? It was his fault since he encouraged Cedric to grab the cup with him, the whole plan was to capture him with Cedric being an innocent victim brought about by his sense of unity and fair play.

It was that guilt that gnawed away inside, if he had been selfish and just taken the cup, if he had refused the right to participate consequences be damned, if he had been stronger, better.

But in his mind he wanted to move on, as much as he wanted to be perfect he wasn't, Hogwarts golden trio, but he was facing a powerful foe, luck had played a big part in his victories, his enemy was cunning and dangerous to be able to counter easily was impossible and best left to fiction.

To bring everything to a neatly wrapped up conclusion was arrogant and more Malfoy thinking, people had died, people had suffered and Harry knew it was only the beginning, it was why he needed to return home as soon as possible.

A knock at the door broke him from his spiralling depressive thoughts, he opened the door to find Louise dressed and looking annoyed at him.

"Uh, listen, you really have no social skills." Louise insult caused a frown.

"Suppose you are the expert on lacking social skills then." Harry replied bitterly, so what if he 'lacked' social decorum?

He was belittled and abused as a child, friendless and alone, anyone that tried to befriend him was fed lies or scared off by Dudley and his gang, Hogwarts wasn't much better, opinion shifting like tides, his house that was supposed to be family often turning on him, it was why he consistently forgave Ron, he was his first friend, it was a lifeline and while his circle of friends increased his first one was important.

"Pwa!" Louise spluttered her face going slightly red. "You! That mouth, why? I at least have a good understanding of dealing with others, I….just chose not to use it." Her comment fizzled out in a stream of broken words and looking away. "Anyway, I have decided to forgive you for yesterday, not like I have any choice."

Oh my god, Harry blinked owlishly, he had seen this pattern before, English class, Kate from the Taming of the Shrew, the woman was like her. He shuddered internally, there were some parallels that he really didn't want to go down, who was he Petruchio?

"Right, sure." A small smirk appearing on his face causing Louise to flush further.

"Let's eat breakfast, Mother and Father are here and my sisters are back now, might as well introduce you to them all."

"Sounds like you're introducing me as your boyfriend." Harry himself felt his face heat up slightly saying that.

"Idiot, I have a fiancé, such implications are scandalous."

The two made their way down to the dining hall, the again awkward silence spurned on by neither knowing exactly what to say to the other, it had only been two days since they met, a tumultuous time of binding, magic and personality friction, it would be a while to fully cope with these problems.

The dining hall was filled with life, muted it may be, the servant milled about setting the plates and cups in place as the waiting quartet sat ready, Lady Karen as Harry knew was sat at the head of the table, seated next to her the man from the portrait, her Husband he assumed, on the left side sat two younger women that bore striking resemblance to each other and Louise.

The first and seemingly older was one with long pink hair like Louise, a calm serene smile that only added to her beauty and a figure that showed a womanly maturity, Harry was almost certain this woman was a future version of Louise.

The second was shorter and less endowed, narrow eyes that matched Karen's under a pair of sharp framed glasses and blonde hair that matched the Dukes in colour but styled like the two others, a colder aura permeated her, clearly this one took after her mother more.

"Sit at the end of the table when I say." Louise whispered causing Harry to nod slightly.

"You're late, Sir Potter, you need to be punctual in these cases, still sit down so we may eat."

"I'm sorry, I have no excuse." Harry spoke clearly reminding himself of the woman's fearsome demeanour.

Moving to the far end of the table he noticed Louise sit opposite her sisters, a bit odd to him but there was probably some social reason he couldn't fathom.

"Before we eat Sir Potter, we pray, Louise will teach you it later, it's a fundamental part of our culture and required knowledge."

Harry knew the importance of this, pray in his junior school was an integral part of the morning assembly while it wasn't done in Hogwarts he could accept that.

Harry bowed his head as the five others spoke their pray, it was standard fare, thanking their founder for the food and the day, normal easy pray he could accept without getting bent out of shape over.

With it over they ate in silence, the periodic gentle clinking of cutlery on plates, eating was a dignified affair and Harry was in some way glad Ron hadn't been summoned, his table manners being what they were, the meal ended shortly afterwards before anyone spoke again.

"Well Sir Potter, myself and my Husband have some dealings today with the crown, we will be back late tonight, good day."

Four sets of eyes tracked the pair leaving as servant moved around taking empty and food laden plates away to be washed and the food eaten by the staff, as the door closed to the parents Louise spoke.

"Cattleya!" Louise virtually bound over the table to hug her sister, Harry noticed a scowl cross the blonde's face as the two pinkettes hugged, clearly there was some friction there he turned back to Louise before he heard someone addressing him.

"What is your relationship with my sister?" Harry turned to stare at the young woman, the blonde was appraising him arms folded and a displeased look on her face.

"I think the term used was Familiar, Ms…."

"Eleonore de La Valliere, how did she summon a person, no, typical of a failure." Harry could almost feel pain radiate from Louise even without seeing her, he wondered if this was part of the runes powers, he put his own scowl on at the girl in front of him, he knew family cruelty well.

"I think if she was a failure she wouldn't have summoned anything, yet here I stand." Harry's voice took a colder turn as he moved to grip his pocketed wand.

"She could have summoned worse I guess, a commoner maybe." Eleonore allowed the tiniest of smirks to ghost her face before resuming her annoyed look. "I am going out, I will be back for supper."

The worryingly emulated pace and stride of Eleonore to Karin was obvious to see and the clear disdain for him was there, the apple didn't fall far from the tree was the term Harry had running through his head at this.

He didn't get a chance to speak or think further before finding himself enveloped between two soft warm objects he could only barely identify as breasts, he knew instantly that the girl identified as Cattleya had hugged him, it certainly wasn't Louise, though why was a question that at that point just wasn't running through his head.

"Sister please unhand him." Louise stated in shock.

"Oh he stood up for you Louise, he is so dear." Cattleya stated before pulling him away from herself, Harry's flushed expression revealed and only partly from breathing issues, the sadness of being pulled away not on his face. "Thank you Sir Potter, so few people look out for my cute little sister, please keep supporting her."

Harry could not in that situation say anything negative to her, her smile was radiant and made him nodded instead.

"Sure, but please call me Harry." Harry replied with a small stammer, he wanted to smack himself, he was acting like how he had around Cho.

"Certainly Sir Harry." Cattleya smiled before turning to Louise. "Shall we move to the pavilion, a change of scenery would be nice and we can catch up and perhaps you can tell me about yourself?" Her last comment back to Harry.

**Tristain Palace**

"So that is the situation." Karen stated while her childhood friend and her daughter sipped their tea.

"Karen, please, crack a smile." Marianne stated with a small smile of her own. "But yes, the crown will always support its most staunch ally and as your friend I will ensure this goes through smoothly for yourself."

Karen allowed herself to lapse slightly into a more relaxed form, her former charge and best friend Marianne, the adventures of their childhood when the younger girl had dragged her around everywhere with a bright smile, it saddened Karen that she no longer had the lighter air about her.

Years ruling the country dealing with problems from Nobles and commoners alike, the loss of her husband and raising her daughter had slowly worn down the woman in front of her even if she tried to put on airs Karen knew they no longer matched those of her memories.

"So what is he like?" Henrietta asked putting her cup down without a sound.

"He is interesting if a little mousey, young, scruffy black hair and piercing green eyes, they look a little haunted, he had fought and killed I can tell that, you don't have eyes with that look without taking a life, even witnessing death has a different look."

"How terrible." Henrietta stated looking a little saddened. "But I guess it would be expected."

"He's a little rough around the edges, but I think with some training he would be a good bodyguard for Louise, and it wouldn't hurt that maybe he can teach her some of his own magic in compensation."

"So he has different magic to us?" Marianne asked surprised.

"From what my daughter told me this morning yes, I took a look at his old clothing too, they were odd, I would say if it was possible that they weren't made by hand nor magic, each piece had some small white tag inside them with writing and symbols I couldn't understand and numbers suggesting size, the letters BHS on many of them."

"How odd, what would be able to make such clothing?" Henrietta spoke trying to understand the concept.

"Maybe something like the printing press." Karin replied unsure herself before standing and bow. "Well Marianne, it is always good to see you, we must do this again, I thank you for indulging in my selfishness."

"Always my friend, I will visit soon and meet this young man myself."

With those parting words Karen left the castle, she had a few more bits of ground work to finish before she could return home, sometimes things just needed to be handled yourself.

**De Valliere Pavilion**

The pavilion was a modest affair, the first Harry had seen in the manor itself, a small building with windows and door with lavish furniture, an overhang outside gave shade for the patio that led to the water with a small stone pier.

The small interrogation by Cattleya was by far one of the most invasive yet least offensive he had been through, Harry only went along with this by her pleasant demeanour and kind personality.

"Such barbarism!" Louise spat out with Harry having explained the triwizard tournament.

"I think they agree, it was why they used an age line to prevent younger people entering, signing up doesn't make you an adult in their eyes, but when the thing was a more common sport, any age could enter and people died, we were lucky until the trap.

"The graveyard." Louise whispered sadly.

"Yes, I tried to warn everyone about Voldemort's resurrection, but my rep is of some glory seeking death wish brat, it's bad enough when people I've lived with in the castle for years take the paper at face value despite knowing I want a quiet life." Harry replied bitterly sighing heavily.

"Fufu, Louise, you summoned a fine young man, he seems the opposite of you." Cattleya giggled lightly trying to up the mood.

"Hmph, so the spell was a failure." Louise huffed.

"Maybe not." Cattleya continued sipping her drink. "Sir Harry sounds from his tales to be a hard worker and loyal, you too have those traits."

Harry and Louise both blushed slightly at her teasing before Louise stood up with alarm.

"We forgot your supplies!"

"Can't we get them tomorrow with the clothes?" Harry asked. "Besides what do I need? Aside from learning your written language."

Harry didn't have a clue how long he was going to be stuck in this world, learning the written language was some way to figuring out his own way home.

"Then maybe Louise can help with that for today? It's still early so you can learn the alphabet." Cattleya replied. "And I can write you a list of what you will need, Louise always forgets something."

"Sister!" Louise was mortified by the outing, the laughter from Harry however was something unexpected.

**Library**

Having excused themselves from their break Harry and Louise had moved to their family library, a dozen bookcases filled with books and scrolls, lush carpets, master worked desks and good lighting gave the place a feeling more like the public one he visited often in his youth over the dark musty feeling of Hogwarts.

Following Louise around the place he felt far too many similarities to Hermione with the rapidly increasing stack of books in his hands, five large heavy tomes were picked out their content written in lavish gold script.

"Ok, now…how are we doing this?" Louise tone deflated through the sentence as Harry placed the books on a desk, his own expression of exasperation certainly not helping her confidence in the issue.

"I don't know, maybe you should write down your alphabet I write down mine and we go from there."

Louise nodded as several pieces of paper were pulled out and both began filling their respective written languages down, Harry not forgetting to write both cases for reference, finishing first he quickly underscored the vowels too.

"Right let's see." Louise finished in her far more elegant handwriting and the two were placed next to each other. "Well this may be a bust."

Harry snorted at the biggest understatement he had heard outside of the binding issues before his mind worked something out.

"Do the letters change when used in words?" Harry asked to Louise confusion. "If you write down some words like table, chair and sun, I can match up my alphabet."

Harry almost sounded excited at getting a loose idea, Louise own brightened expression too suggested something of a good idea.

"Ok, maybe we can do this."

Forgetting lunch, the pair worked on getting Harry up to speed on writing for the rest of the day, while not much he had gotten a fair idea of matching up some of his letters to the Halkegenian alphabet before supper.

Being called by the servants the pair left after returning their books to the shelves and cleaning up to eat, entering the dining room again the full or as full as Harry knew family was in attendance.

"Sir Potter, I wish to speak to you after our meal." Karen stated coolly to which Harry could only nod.

**A/N: Cut again another cliff hanger, next chapter will finish off getting Harry ready for his school life, Karen will set in motion her plans for Harry, a nice bit of give and take on her part that Harry will have (or can't have) any objection too.**

**Chapter 3 is already coming along well, should get that posted before Christmas (lies XD). I hope.**


	3. Choiceless Choices

**A/N: Ok first off a big thank you to everyone that faved, followed and reviewed this fic.**

**Sorry for the late posting of this chapter but work happened then I was up in Iceland over Christmas hunting the northern lights and following the Golden Circle, caught a cold the day I was to return and well that waylaid me for a while.**

**Still a brief note for clarity, this is neither a fix fic or bash fic, I say this now as some scenes in Chapter 5 I have written come off as that, but I am just following this stories butterfly. Harry too isn't out to change this world, far from it so don't expect him to push for a republic or democratic government.**

**This chapter was supposed to end with Harry returning to Tristain Academy, but since this fic is as much about the characters interacting and getting to know each other as it is plot, that went out the window, a brief scene showing what is happening in the school is near the end.**

**Some of this chapter might not go over well, again its about following a logical step in a larger picture that I won't paint, my bottom A/N will explain some of my reasoning but are spoilers for this chapter. Anyway enough rambling on with the story.**

**A/N2: Light change to a single area for 1.1, will be explained in chapter 4.**

**V 1.1 (12.03.16)**

**Disclaimer: Familiar of Zero and Harry Potter are not owned by me.**

Dinner had again been a muted affair, Harry once again sitting at the very bottom of the table, he at least now knew that Louise sat opposite her sisters due to her engagement and not some family ostracisation, it would have been sad for him if that had been the case, even Harry ate at the Dursley's table after starting Hogwarts.

Having finished their meal Harry followed Karen and the Duke into a room on the second floor, the sound of the door being locked as he stood in the centre sent a mild chill down his spine.

Harry's face changed to a confused expression when Karen sat behind the room's desk with the Duke behind her, he hadn't spoken to the man yet and the term, 'who wears the trousers' came to mind.

"Now Harry, this is my husband Nicolas, you will address him as Duke De Valliere, but let's get straight to the point, what are your future plans?" Karen went straight to the heart of the matter, not surprising Harry with her bluntness in the slightest.

"To return home." Harry said without hesitation.

"I see, that's too bad." Karen spoke her tone neutral.

Silence reigned for a moment as both Karen and Harry held their stares, the air becoming uncomfortable and heavy, the woman known around the country as the 'Heavy Wind' and the one known around Britain and some of Europe as the 'Boy Who Lived' faced off.

"How so?" Harry replied after a moment a sliver of steel edging into his voice.

"Oh? You see familiars are for life, the idea you would just cut and run doesn't sit well with me." Karen replied matter of factly.

Harry crossed his arms his expression darkening at how the woman in front tried to block his way home.

"Well, I got more important problems of my own back home to deal with. Staying here isn't an option." Harry replied, each word becoming harder as his stare followed suit.

"So there is a good spine there, yesterday must have been an off day." Karen allowed a very small curve of her lips, the near frown turning into a flat look. "And what problems does someone your age need to solve?"

A genuine question on her part, she was his age when she fought battles and protected the then Princess of Tristain, his own hallowed and hollow eyes showed plenty to her, but without knowing what he had faced or was to face she would reserve judgement on him until then.

"A powerful dark Lord named Voldemort, he. Nearly brought my country to its knees over a decade ago. He was apparently killed along with his last victims, I was the only survivor being a little over a year old." Harry didn't say anything about his parents, didn't need to with the obvious implications. "Turns out he didn't truly die he survived as some shade but he was resurrected a few months ago, I need to kill him to protect my friends."

A soft grunt from Nicolas was heard as Karen nodded, her expression softening slightly at this.

"I see, I am sorry for your loss, I take it this dark Lord is powerful?" While to Karen resurrection as seemed to be the case or some form of it was definitely heretical magic, something the elves had, it seemed he had gone through much and was certainly not a child or at least not one anymore.

"Yes, as I said he nearly brought my country to its knees before. The current government is burying their heads and refusing to accept he's back out of fear of the dark days, they don't even use his name such is their fear, they call him 'he who must not be named', or 'you know who'."

Harry sighed, he could understand their fear, he too had for a while feared Dudley until the fact he was a fixture in his life had been realised, Voldemort wasn't, a boogie-man, daggers in the dark, open assaults in public places, killing any who would stand in his way, many had paid for it, no one wanted to remember the bad old days or want to go back to them, a sad pitiable reaction.

"It doesn't help that his doctrine is pure blood supremacy. Many of his followers were rich influential types, Nobles, many got off from prison sentences and the Dementors kiss using their money after the war."

A brief shift was noted from both Karen and Nicolas by Harry, the air again becoming heavy with pressure and a slight breeze in the windowless room that made Harry look around.

"I do hope you weren't suggesting my family might too be corrupt, because I will not stand for that, remember this Harry. You live on my sufferance, my daughter's faux pa notwithstanding this goes beyond just her to the rest of my family."

The pressure was intense, Harry shift slightly at the power radiated from the woman in front of him but he held his ground, it was easily on par with the more powerful magic users he knew, Dumbledore, Voldemort, McGonagall and even Snape, and it was more worrying she didn't even seem to be trying yet.

"That wasn't my intention Lady Valliere." Harry remembered her demanded title quickly, a burnt bridge wasn't going to help him return home, but he needed to make his own stance clear too. "But I will not be threatened regardless of intent, I have had enough of that for my entire life from everyone. So my own point is, even if I were to go down here it wouldn't be quietly or without a body count of its own."

Another snort from Nicolas was heard, while the pressure was no longer increasing it wasn't decreasing either, the man who had said nothing stepped forward putting a hand on Karen's shoulder.

"I like this young man, not many would stand their ground against you. Harry, what my wife has spent the last two days working on is something that will protect our family and in turn this country, to us these are important. You being summoned and bound is something that will allow certain…..elements to wither away at our powerbase and spell potential disaster for our country."

Harry listened to what the older man had to say, he couldn't find himself caring about the geopolitical problems of a nation that bound him. But what he said and what he felt were often two very different things.

"Myself and Karen, have already spoken to several of our allied nobles, we are going to offer you a chance, just one, now. No thinking it over and coming back later." Nicolas paused ensuring he had Harry's full attention. "Our offer is for you to be a vassal of our family, you will be charged with looking after a small area under our rule, a place of your own one of our smaller summer homes, a stipend for your services and you would naturally follow Louise's orders and ours, there will be no conditions from you on this."

The pressure continued to hold, Harry was impressed with her ability to keep it steady, either she was still angry with him which was a possibility or it was part of their ploy, to Harry the offer sounded too good.

His binding had him basically following Louise's orders anyway, the idea of having some form of power gave him mixed feelings, and made him suspicious. Sure they had explained it to him the why at least but did that necessarily mean they were telling the truth?

It was also the fact he would have some power, he wasn't sure how much but the way it was suggested he was most likely to be in charge of maybe a small town, had his parents lived through the war he would have most likely grown up as an heir himself learning the ropes.

The very thought caused him to shudder, even with his parents as they were, the chances of him turning into a Malfoy were always there. He would have to be careful if he accepted their offer, still he had a choice to make, and no real time to make it from what the Duke said, much like the school choice he knew things couldn't get any worse for him.

"I accept." Harry replied, what else did he have to lose? He was basically at their mercy anyway.

The pressure disappeared almost instantly confirming that it had been part of the ploy, or Karen had spectacular control on her emotions and power, the possibility was certainly there and he wasn't counting that one out.

"A wise choice, we will need to go to the Palace in a few days to formalise it, you will get a title for yourself, can't have you wandering around the school without such a thing, but had you chosen to refuse, we would have had to remove you from here." Karen answered her smile cold.

Harry was of no allusions of what that meant, he figured she would have beaten him, but he would have certainly taken half the mansion down in the process, it was a stance he was certain he would need to take more often.

With the threat of Voldemort looming though less so at this point and now threats from those he didn't know, enslavement and lost in another world and held at their behest, he was reaching the end of his tether, he knew he needed an outlet soon or things would take a turn for the worst.

"Now, Harry, as our vassal we need you to act like one, to be one, what has Louise been teaching you?" The Duke asked moving behind Karen and placing his hands on her chair.

"The alphabet, your written language isn't part of the translation spell." Nicolas nodded to that.

"Very good, so you are still willing to learn regardless of your plans, Louise will continue on with that. I will for the next few days after dealing with my own responsibilities teach you how to act as a member of nobility and how the system works and my wife will show you some magical combat and tactics, it would be interesting for us to see what you can do too."

Harry could only nod at this, he was still worried about how this was going to turn out, but they seemed to be helping him, though he was basically chained too, a gilded cage as it were, the apparent idea of freedom, though a gilded one was a far better thing than the cage we was in back home.

"I think that will be all for today Harry, you still need to get your school supplies no?"

"Yes, Louise and I were going to pick them up tomorrow with my new clothes."

"Forget that, I will have the servants pick them up, we are not wasting a moment that can be used, I will get the information from Louise, good night."

The last part was a clear dismissal if Harry had ever heard one, standing and bowing slightly he opened the door for the three to see Louise standing halfway down the corridor, clearly she wasn't going to get too close but had waited for him if her expression was clear.

As the door closed behind Harry Karin let out a sigh, she allowed herself to relax as she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, the feeling of tension slowly draining as the hands slowly kneaded their way into her muscles.

"Boy has a lot on his plate, but he seems to be handling it well." Nicolas remarked. "Rare to find someone that young stand up to you, even if he doesn't know your reputation the power was real."

"Maybe, he seems to have gone through much, but he is much too close to breaking or snapping, we will have to be careful." Karen groaned a little in pleasure at the ministrations her husband had magic hands.

**Hallway**

Harry hadn't expected Louise to be there, while she had been rather reasonable with him he hadn't thought she would be there instead spending time with Cattleya, whatever the dream she had had, the ghosts request had been somewhat listened too.

"How did it go? I felt mother's magic from here." Louise seem genuinely relieved he was at least unharmed.

"Not sure, but I seemed to have piled more debt on myself somehow, nothing new there." He grumbled the last part bitterly.

"What? How?" Louise at least seemed shocked her expression switching between concern and annoyance. "I won't allow this, I will speak to her about removing whatever this debt is."

"No, I think she will tell everyone tomorrow or sometime this week." Harry prevented the small girl from bravely charging into the lion's den, he was starting to wonder about which house she would have ended up in at Hogwarts.

Cattleya had said she was loyal and brave, from his own short time knowing her she didn't seem cunning or at least anything like the typical pure blood, Slytherin was out that much he was certain of, a tossup of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff so far.

Louise seemed to deflate at this halting, a mixture of relief from not facing her mother in some honor bound suicidal rush and sadness that he was keeping some secret from her about her own family, to her it was like normal with the family, she was being left behind and worse so with an outsider knowing more.

"I understand." To Harry Louise seemed smaller, far more so that normal. "I am tired, I will retire for the night Harry, goodnight."

Another dismissal was heard though the tone was the complete opposite, the lack of power or pride or even will, Harry felt no small amount of guilt that he had caused this one from trying to not involve someone in his problems, someone that he was loathed to admit was as much part of them as a solution.

Seeing her dejection it was almost like his younger days at being excluded from everything around him, he had tried to not let it get to him but people were not machines they did break under stress and seeing her like this was a mirror to where he had been there many times, far too many times before.

"Wait, Louise." He didn't reach out though his voice was firm and crisp, the girl paused but didn't turn around. "Your parents offered me the option to be a vassal of your family." Harry left it out about it being no real option. "I accepted."

Louise said nothing for a moment, her face turned slightly giving Harry a view of her profile, a strangely sad smile across her face, she turned away again and walked off without a word, Harry wasn't sure what to say, it had only been three days and so much had happened, the whole thing wasn't just affecting him as Karen had said but others too, Louise most likely more than anyone other than him.

While he certainly had no rhyme or reason to care about the feeling of those he didn't know, some people were trying to aide him, sure some of them had actively caused the problems and he wanted to be selfish and ignore those that had hurt him, but it wasn't Harry.

He did hate them all though, Osmond he did, a lot for not thinking about the personal consequences, Karen to a fair degree though on personality friction and Colbert and Louise to a lesser degree for their part, but being stubborn and childish wasn't going to get him back home, it was a far better option to work with them than against them.

If he did find they weren't helping or were actively trying to hold him there, then he would act, but without his friends or those he knew around he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Before he started the third year was a good example of not thinking, sure the dog had been Sirius, but it had been luck and having a place he knew that had made his escape from the Dursleys that year a credible option, this time he had no such means.

Looking around at the now deserted hall he walked off towards the main entrance, it was still a little too early for him to sleep, with nothing else to do he headed off to look around the grounds.

Heading outside he wandered through the garden, the soft rustling of leaves in the gentle breeze and gurgling of water from the small stream running through the grounds mixed with the less natural sounds.

The sky was a whole different world from home, without the glaring artificial light or heavy early industrial pollution the night sky spread out, hues of blue and purple mixed with black, blue and pink of the twin moons and streams of stars that flowed across the sky, while Hogwarts had something similar the heavier light of the castle still reduced the night's majesty.

He looked for familiar constellations in the sky to no avail, the time in astronomy class proving useless, he knew nothing of where he was in the galaxy or even if he was in the same one, he could be the other side of the universe.

He briefly sat on the stone bridge edge looking into the dark waters below, so much had happened in the last few days he had little time to reflect on it, in some ways it was like his first year again, wonders abound, but he was older now more jaded, but he didn't want that either.

The idea of the young boy that just accepted Hagrid's 'you're a wizard Harry' comment, sure he had bent a gun, gave him a cake (sort of) and stuck Dudley with a pigs tail, but the last one could have been smoke and mirror magic, but maybe that was him? Someone that deep down wanted something new.

A safe haven away from the pain, somewhere to belong. Hogwarts had been that from the Dursleys, was this place that from Hogwarts? If so what of whatever happened here? Was that his lot, to run from the deeper problems?

Getting off the bridge he realised somewhat why he wasn't thinking on things, it was too depressive and his early summer had seen enough of that.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to walk on the grass in the garden but couldn't care enough as he made his way further afield, the lack of sounds was also a bit disconcerting, the periodic neigh of a horse and rustling of branches but the few and far between noises made the silence more noticeable.

He allowed himself to get vaguely lost, the maze of hedges and trees that bordered the west of the manor, encircling the lake and leading to the area he had only yesterday fired his first gun at.

The woods were more alive with sounds, living sounds, rustling of leaves and the skittering of small creatures around the ground, the odd nocturnal bird most likely some owl or something that would pass as an owl in this world hooting high in the branches.

Stopping close to a large copse he brought his wand out, the feeling of knowledge and power ran through him, he felt his emotions flood to the forefront of his head, swinging his wand out he yelled.

"Bombarda!" The incantation's words cut through the natural sounds causing wildlife to scatter.

The spell hit the aimed at tree exploding it in a shower of bark and sap like it was hit with an explosive, the groan of the tree as it collapsed added to the unusual sounds.

He aimed another spell at the trees Diffindo, the severing charm his runes however showed him the next level.

"Lacerabis!" The cutting spell less wand movement and more powerful, a white light over green fired almost like a wave of energy two trees dropped like they were felled by a lumberjack.

"Reductio!" Another helpless tree fell before Harry's wand.

Harry aimed his wand a fourth time, another tree in his sights as the end of his focus began glowing the ambience increasing as he fed more power into the spell, like drawing back an elastic band, the wind slowly increasing as magicks flowed from the very air itself.

"Bombarda!" The pained anger flooded forth as Harry fired another Bombarda at another target, the explosion dwarfed the first removing most of the trees centre and sending splintered wood everywhere, a small amount of pain was felt on his cheek told him he had been hit with debris.

Touching his face slowly he felt a small piece of wood dug into his face like an enlarged splinter, remove it he felt the blood trickle down his face, he rubbed at the blood with his palm to prevent it staining his clothes before looking for another object to hit, another tree or a rock would be fine.

"Impressive, I guess it's a good way to blow off some anger, but please be mindful, this is still our property." The calm male voice spoke from behind him causing him to jump, turn and aim in one movement. "Oh? Some good reflexes too, or is that something to do with the binding?"

Nicolas stepped out of the shadows into the newly cleared area, a slight grin on his face, Harry lowered his wand to a relaxed position but said nothing.

"My wife is impressed with you, it's not too often you find that happens, I should know." An almost wry grin formed on the older man's face, the impression of nobility no longer coming from the man. "But I would be careful around her, she is not one to be trifled with, she let it slide on your ignorance, but that won't be the case for long."

Harry paused before he could reply, he could run his mouth easily enough, but the Duke was clearly trying to be friendly, manners were important aspect of life and he had had them almost beaten into him in his youth.

"I will remember that." Harry's own flat tone replied, the same one used when dealing with those he didn't know enough to truly be himself around properly.

"Good." Nicolas nodded. "Now, I would like to see those spells again, a good gauge of your power and skill."

Harry had no reason to refuse, though no reason to accept either, but he still needed to burn off some stress, turning around he felt the man move off to the side but still behind him, a ways to view both his movements and the target without ending up in the firing line.

"Bombarda." A more muted casting this time, the spell impacted the tree, the impact point exploded violently causing the top of the tree to fall this time towards them.

"Looks like Louise's spell, all of them." Nicolas commented. "Maybe you can throw around one of your other spells in school first then that…Bombarda? My daughter yelling that might give the impression it's meant to happen."

Harry wasn't sure if the man was joking or not, certainly Louise had told him that magically she could only make explosions, certainly something that could pass as a real spell made sense, though why she couldn't cast anything else was a big question.

"Would that work?" Harry finally asked.

"Maybe, I would try anything unless the legality issues that rose would cause more damage than good for my family Harry, not all of us show it, but we do care for each other." Nicolas replied after a short pause. "But I have a question for you regarding family, you didn't say it but seemed to imply that your parents were killed at the end, what about other family members? Do you not have anyone else?"

Harry tensed, before casting a look of both annoyance and sadness at Nicolas, the man was certainly blunt, Louise must have gotten that from him.

"I would rather not answer that." Harry knew it was his own fault for even saying anything.

"Okay." Nicolas nodded. "I'm sure what you told us must have hurt, but I am curious about the idea you lived."

Harry deflated, he was still pushing just in a roundabout way, but the whole title wouldn't leave him alone even in another world.

"I am called, 'the boy who lived', a title given to me for surviving a spell that leaves no survivors." He said with exhaustion it was rare to have to explain the title with the magical community he came from knowing more about his 'life' than he did, but it still brought up long faded memories and a bad taste in his mouth.

Nicolas piqued up at this, a title was interesting anyway, though it did leave something to be desired, a title that basically to him painted a target on his back, but a spell that left no survivors was also a curiosity, many attack spells killed, what made this one any different?

"Could you show me that spell?" Nicolas winced himself at that, the chance to see a different form of magic had tripped his tongue.

Harry stared at the man incredulously at his blunt and heartless comment, the Avada Kedavra curse sure he knew the spell, Barty Jr had taught them all. He knew the mechanics behind it, he knew the mechanics behind all the unforgivables, but he hadn't used them.

It was however easy to understand, a killing curse, or the killing curse, focus and intent, well he had enough anger to want something dead at the moment, if his target was the tree, he could use it once.

"Fine." Harry had no doubt the request would come through again. "But this will be the only time I use it."

He stood facing a tree away from the man and one as far as he could reasonably be while still being certain he could hit it, he took a deep breath, focusing, he could feel the runes powering him as he focused on the spell, he opened his eyes in horror, it was far too easy to cast, he didn't even need to feel the emotions required to cast it, it would overpower the spell.

The idea of somehow overpowering a one hit spell was confusing and worrying, he felt his concentration waver before regaining himself, focusing again he ensured his target was in his sights, behind him Nicolas said nothing watching intently.

"Avada Kedavra!" Harry spat out the foul words.

The green light and rushing sound filled the forest, the bolt of energy slammed into the targeted tree causing a small explosion, similar to the Bombarda but less collaterally damaging.

"Flashy, but doesn't seem to be that impressive sadly."

"It only does that when hitting targets without souls." Harry spoke coolly. "If that hit a living person, they die, it's called the killing curse, in hundreds of years of using it, it just does, no injuries, no marks, nothing." Harry lift his fringe again showing the healing over scar. "Except this and whatever the hell was inside it."

Nicolas nodded upwardly, so that was why, he could see the Bombarda spell capable of killing or maiming, but if that spell just killed regardless of where it hit, then it was certainly well named, and very dangerous.

"I am sorry Harry, that couldn't have been easy." Harry's huff in response told him all. "Though what do you mean by whatever was in the scar?"

"I don't know, it has never healed since I got it, but hurt when Voldemort was near. You would have to speak to Louise on what came out of it, I was unconscious."

"I will do that, the very idea of a pure killing spell leaving a mark makes no sense." Nicolas mused and Harry completely agreed with, he had had it for so long however that it wasn't much point worrying about it to him. "But back to that spell, if as you say, and I will take your word for it that the spell only kills, then I forbid you to use that without my express permission."

Harry looked shocked and appalled at the comment, the man wanted him to use it? He was almost temped to use it again now, against him.

"You are to be a vassal of ours Harry, vassals protect, forget about the magic binding for a moment, we are taking you in." Another spluttered noise. "While we will support you as we can, you are our front shield and sword, my youngest daughter's most of all, should she be put in extreme danger, then you will use it against those that want to harm her."

Harry almost accepted that reasoning but he never wanted to use the damn spell, using it to show it as an example was bad enough, the far too easy to use spell made him fearful of what he could become in using it, he had a far larger repertoire of spells that could do the same job without resorting to that one again.

"I will never use that spell again Duke De Valliere."

"I see. Very well I will honor your wish on that, get some rest but if you do need to vent try to limit the damage to my forest. I will speak to you tomorrow when you have your first lesson." With those words the man walked into the shadows and headed back to the manor, the sounds of feet on twigs and leaves sounded for a few moments before disappearing.

With no one around he turned back to the area of destruction, he could at least listen to him and limit the deforestation he was causing by taking out the fallen trees.

For what may have been another two hours flashes of light and explosions reigned in the area before an exhausted Harry returned to the manor and passed out on his bed.

**Louise Room – Next Morning**

The night had been fitful for her, as with the last few nights the dream had returned, not with the same clarity or seeming interactivity of the first night but still there, the horrid flashes of green light impacting the boy then him slumping dead, the cold silent graveyard where an unholy ritual was to take place, the followers of a monster and the duel that very much was to the death.

She had awoken in a sweat, at one point it seemed the green magic was aiming at her, it left her tired as she remained awake to not see it again, it was a dream at least in a sense to her, Harry had lived it and moved on, and yet they still hadn't talked about the meaning behind the message, at least not in depth.

But then she wasn't sure how to broach such a clearly sensitive subject when he had seen someone that was she thought at least a friend of his die, tact wasn't her forte but she would try, she needed to know how did it come to that? Who was the other boy? What of the ratty man?

Questions had filled her head and even without the desire to not sleep she doubted she would, it was like the study sessions that ran late, so much knowledge that went into review mode she found the first rays of pre-dawn light appear before she would fall asleep.

She did manage to sleep some a dreamless one then woke again only an hour later feeling worse than before, she rubbed her eyes tiredly before shuffling out of the covers and heading to get herself ready.

Sitting at her vanity she looked at her sallow skin, she had work to do before making an appearance, she wasn't one for make up outside of a rare special occasion like a ball but needed something to hide the clearly sleepless night.

It took far longer than expected to deal with the damage, her hair in knots needed more than the usual amount of brushing and light touch up on her eyes and around her cheeks, she nodded to herself satisfied she would at least pass a brief glancing.

Today she and Harry would pick up his clothing and get his school supplies and uniform, he needed something different for the school one, many changed their uniforms to denote themselves, she stopped at this thought, did he want to stand out? She was under the impression he didn't but at the same time it was unlikely he would have the luxury of not, maybe she would explain this and maybe something flashy would work, in the end the classes would generally ignore it.

She smiled somewhat in that she would in essence have him to herself for the day, a chance to talk about things in a calm environment and maybe understand the dream and maybe he could help her with her magic too.

She paused, he wanted to return home, it was a lot of effort to expend on someone that wasn't staying and he too was expending much for the same reason, it was a little sad for her, it wasn't about the money or anything tangible, it just seemed to her like he was someone that could understand her better than many others did.

It didn't help that he had accepted the vassal status whatever that meant for him, while she could see the situation and understand it a part of her felt hurt, it was like he was freeing himself from her. While she held no illusions to the binding of him being wrong as she knew it was wrong, in the end he was a person with his own life.

The idea that things could be reversed, an image entered her mind of her wearing a dirty soiled sack top and chained to a wall by her wrists, no freedom and rights, she shook her head to clear the depressive thoughts, the dream was bad enough to provoke her imagination.

It was that idea that made her wonder briefly about the creatures they bound too, while she harboured no true expectations on creatures such as birds and frogs and such it added a saddening concept to ones like dogs having their own packs and families that they would now never see, much like when Cattleya took in a puppy left alone after its mother got run over by a carriage, how many animals had lost one that was important to their own survival?

But here was Harry a person, bound under ancient tenants to serve her, as had been the case for thousands of years of using the ritual, and yet he was to be given a twisted sort of out, she didn't like it, and she didn't like the part of her that seemed to want to keep him bound either.

Exiting her room to avoid going in circles it didn't take long to find him wandering the halls, it was still early enough not to head to breakfast, the pair staring at each other, no overt noticeable expressions until Louise frowned, unless Harry was too using make up he looked fine, almost refreshed, or at least not as haggard and wary as he had been.

It pissed her off, she was worrying about important philosophical stuff and he was going with it, her eye twitched causing a small amount of pain around her eyes, she wanted to yell but restrained herself, fatigue was causing her already short fuse to burn quicker.

"G-good morning Harry." Her smile strained a little.

"Morning." He replied raising a hand in greeting. The restraint broke.

"Damn it, greet properly not like some low brow peasant." She pointed at him. "Say Good morning Lady Louise."

Harry smiled bemusedly, it was funny, she looked awful clearly sleep deprived, and he knew Aunt Petunia well enough to see the same signs in Louise, though why she was sleep deprived was something he wasn't going to ask her, there were some things you just didn't ask a girl.

A thought occurred at this since he was addressing both her parents by titles he guessed he could humour her, but only for his own amusement, he needed to find and use anything he could to keep himself happy and it would to him be a real laugh anyway.

"Certainly." He bowed in an overly exaggerated manner, his accent taking on the posh British butler flavour. "Good morning Lady Louise, it's rather spiffy today isn't it? Quite."

Louise spluttered her face turning crimson, what the hell was that? Now she knew he was poking fun at her, her foot tamping on the carpet quickly as she tried to reign in her rapidly deteriorating control.

No sharp reply came from her however as footsteps entered their hearing range followed by a greeting.

"Good morning Harry, Louise, so nice to see you both up and getting along." The voice that could only belong to Cattleya broke the weird one sided stand off, looking at the lovely woman he replied his own greeting before noticing the small parade of pets following her and the cat resting on her shoulder.

A wild mixture, dogs, cats, birds….snake, he paused at that one, the creature was lazily wrapped around her arm clearly basking in her body heat.

$Ah! So warm.$ It hissed merrily before fully looking at Harry. $Is there something on my face human?$

$No mister snake.$ Harry hissed involuntarily as he often did when conversing with snakes.

Both girls seemed shocked by the odd sound emanating from the boy though he didn't notice having virtually gone into tunnel vision.

$Mistress calls me Pyth, but a speaker of my language? Interesting, could you please tell my mistress I wish for twice my usual meal today, I will be shedding tomorrow and don't wish to be around anyone.$

Harry nodded, he knew enough about snakes to know shedding usually resulted in the snake becoming more aggressive, it spoke volumes about the woman and strangely the snake that it didn't want to inadvertently hurt its mistress.

Losing his focus on the reptile for a moment and coming back to full reality, the curious stares from both women making him realise he was doing 'it' again.

"Sorry. Happens a lot, so uh, Pyth asked for twice his usual, he's shedding tomorrow."

For a moment Cattleya said nothing stunned into silence before smiling brightly and giggling, her voice crisp and clear even as she began petting the creature to its content.

"My, Sir Harry you continue to surprise me, at least I will know now where he will be, you have my thanks, but that is an interesting ability."

Harry blushed again, the beautiful woman was again sending him into his own stupid hormonal territory, the hissing laughter of Pyth didn't help at all.

"Still I will take my pets for their food and meet you both in the dining room."

Silence filled the hallway outside of a single set of human footsteps and the myriad amount of padded footfalls, Harry watched the bizarre situation round a corner before looking at Louise, the girl staring at him with a look of uncomprehending shock.

He snapped his fingers in front of her quickly gaining her attention, though her facial expression was one of annoyance at the way he did it.

"What's with the zoo?" Harry wasn't sure if they had zoo's but it was worth a shot.

"My sister has something of an obsession with taming animals, anything really, even predators."

Harry wondered how well the woman would get along with Hagrid in that capacity, the large half giant with the very friendly demeanour and the seemingly gentle woman both with a great love of animals of all kinds.

"Come, I still need to teach you the founders prayer, we got some time let's go to the study." Louise commanded. "And you can tell me how you can understand snakes, sounds heretical."

Harry followed Louise to the study/library he didn't really care to learn it, the whole thing he hoped would just be pointless, he would go back to the academy and find Colbert had already found a way back for him, the whole week nothing but a semi relaxing/ highly stressful mixture away from his forced isolation, something he could tell his friends about and laugh at in the future.

All the money and time everyone had spent on him would be a waste but he wasn't finding himself truly caring about that, sure he kind of liked the girl he was following, abrasive and rude though she was, but she was honest and genuinely trying to help, and to Harry that did count for something.

The next thirty minutes had him reciting the prayer it was basically their version of Lord's Prayer from Junior school in a nut shell, pretty simple to learn and nothing he saw as a reason to worry about or get bent out of shape with, he had enough issues without piling more on himself, he really needed to work through his problems, at least those he could solve himself.

He had briefly explained during a small break the notion of Parseltongue, avoiding the more unsavoury aspects associated with it, a lesser form of the dragon language was how he eventually passed if off as, he wasn't sure if they had linked snakes and dragons as similar, not that they really were but she wouldn't know that, he hoped.

With his early lesson at an end breakfast was again the same as the day before and the day before that, one minor change being Karen asking if he knew the prayer now, he made sure to repeat it loud enough for her to hear, while he wasn't too pleased with his actions it was again preventing problems and dealing with them over making more.

When the meal ended Eleonore and Cattleya departed leaving the two adults, himself and Louise in the room something he noted as clearly intentional.

"Now Harry." Karen spoke first. "First off, please try not to destroy too much of our land, we got woodsmen for trees." Her expression seemed at least a little to hold some amusement, at least Harry hoped so. "Still My husband and I have a few early duties to attend to, Louise will continue to teach you our language, after dinner my husband will give you his lessons and then after supper I will teach you."

Harry suppressed a shudder at the almost gleeful expression the woman had at the end, she was looking forward to something Harry would rather not think about, sure he could figure from Nicolas the night before that Karen was clearly not to truly be trifled with, it wouldn't mean he would back down at least willingly, but she was powerful, more so than himself, that he had no doubt about.

"Right." Harry replied trying to maintain eye contact, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes, Lady Valliere." A small smile the kind given by someone to a pet when they learned a new trick, a bit patronising, but he let it go.

"Louise, you don't have to worry about picking up Harry's clothing either, I will have our servants doing that later." Karin turned to address her youngest daughter.

"Yes mother." Louise replied her eyes not maintaining contact with the woman.

With that the pair left to do whatever nobles did, Harry and Louise looking at each other before too heading off, to Harry it was almost becoming a routine, he felt the notion was itself almost terrifying, like some way to keep him occupied and not leaving, it was the uncomfortable parallels he was drawing.

The few hours studying had been broken up with short breaks, there was only so much of the semi legible text Harry could look at before his head hurt, he was glad Louise was at least being patient with him, that wouldn't stop him from hexing her if she started some bossy attitude.

The second she drew a whip or ruler he was casting, slug or bat bogey were admittedly the worse he would cast on the girl he still remembered the look on her face when he cast 'Incendio' towards her, the look of fear and horror made him feel guilty about it.

He had eventually gotten up the courage to apologise for it, it was one thing to apologise for a wrongdoing, and it was another for a reactive self-defence action that took place over half a week ago, he had apologised enough in his childhood for things he had never done courtesy of Dudley and had tried to make it a rule to not apologise on reflex.

Still she had brushed it off as nothing to worry about, he did note however she seemed more at ease afterwards telling him he had clearly hurt her more from the spell than initially thought.

The notion of a week was another question he had during the session, how long was a week here? Were the hours the same? Surely two moons caused more drag than one unless they were created later, maybe that was why they were closer? Didn't they cover that in both science and history? He wasn't sure Dudley often shot paper wads at him though his bic pen.

Louise had been helpful in those answers, eight day weeks, four week months and twelve month years, the time of day was thankfully similar to Earth, at least they had clocks of 12 hours and they seemed to move about right.

Strangely enough it felt like some good news, everything was potentially an issue, while longer weeks and naturally years were not a great thing, overall he wouldn't need to worry about a change to his sleep patterns.

The meal at dinner finished with little fanfare, Cattleya and Eleonore taking Louise off somewhere while Nicolas confronted him before escorting him off.

For Harry it was a lesson in learning to act like a noble, it was a far more informal type lesson than what he was expecting from Karin's upcoming combat spells or Louise library bound lessons, sitting in the waiting room the man held a glass of brandy as he stared at him.

"Now, we are going to teach you the finer points of nobility, to stand alongside those that have close ties to royalty and deal with those that wield magic you need to be able to integrate with them." Harry nodded though he didn't like the sound of where this was going. "Now, what can you do? Let's see what foundation I have to work with."

Harry thought about what he knew of nobility, he had plenty of history on dealing with purebloods in Slytherin and the opposite end Weasley's, the selection pool for him to draw from however wasn't the greatest since those he did interact with that weren't Ron all acted the same, but regardless of that it should be easy on that context.

"Okay, uh." He coughed his face morphing into a sneer. "You there peasant, how dare you think you are my equal, to even be in my presence is an honor."

There was a stony silence, Harry felt a tumble weed would pass by in the room, he face fully flushed red, channelling Malfoy wasn't a good idea, he now felt that no amount of washing would ever make himself clean.

He vowed that when he returned home he would hex Malfoy's arse to the point he couldn't sit down for the remainder of his school life and a good time into his adult life for ever being someone he knew.

"Harry." The voice held what would only be described as disappointment. "Who taught you that?"

"No one, I was trying to act like someone in my school, he's a bit of, no, he's a total git but is from one of the most rich and influential families in Britain."

Nicolas nodded in understanding, a few inferable ideas on the name of his country and the idea of how their upper class acted, while there certainly was no lack of nobles that acted that way, it wasn't a good way to start.

"I think you misunderstand something about nobles Harry, yes, there are some, far too many for my liking that act like that, but a true noble is simply a person that leads by example, our magic helps all the people, we use for example Earth magic to farm the ground for minerals and foods, build houses, Water magic to bring water to drought ridden areas and heal the injured."

It sounded good to Harry, a little too good, but maybe he was seeing phantoms where there were none, it still wouldn't stop him asking, it felt in a way like how nobility appeared in his world, how a person or clan got hold of some artefact like a gem or staff made from the bones of a large kill and used that as a sign of their power, to these people it seemed magic was that artefact.

"Do the muggles or commoners have their own labour pools and inventors?"

The question caught the man flat footed his expression tell Harry to continue.

"Well you said farming, what about crop rotation?" An important aspect of agriculture to his world, it was something he had to ask.

"Crop rotation?" Nicolas queried.

"Yes, say a large field divided into four almost equal squares, one field has wheat, one corn and another beans while a fourth is left bare."

"Ah, I see yes, we do something similar, since Earth mages are often employed to construction aspects we discovered that a few centuries ago some crops grew better after something else had been planted the season before." Nicolas smiled, he was impressed the young man clearly had an education well above the norm for his age or station. "Usually when Earth mages work they do create minerals in the ground themselves so this wasn't a requirement in those cases but it is known."

Harry felt himself blush slightly, he was trying to thrust his own world and opinion onto another culture, he knew this wasn't a morally correct action, more so when he clearly knew almost nothing about the world he was living in except what he could draw from his own worlds history and with public magic that was less so than normal.

"We will have to speak more on this later, I am curious about how your world does things like travel and healing, it sounds like you have some differences to ours, but let's continue with the idea of a noble."

Harry listened at least intently to Nicolas's explanation of nobility from his own perspective, he was of two minds on it, the one hand it did sound good, certainly a far cry from Malfoy's pure blood doctrine and supremacy, on the other hand it did sound almost propagandaous, spun in a good light, though Nicolas had cleared up one thing he was confused about, the servants were just that, employed with contracts they were paid and given time off, not slaves a practice that itself had long been abandoned.

While he seemed to be the exception to the rule, it did in fact make him feel somewhat better, something no one had foreseen to happen, and the De la Valliere family was mostly accommodating and trying to lessen the apparent shackles with some power of his own, though they had spelled out why.

Family, the one thing he only had a small taste of, again it reminded Harry not to take things at face value something he should have learned at latest in his second year, he was willing to give the De Valliere family the benefit of the doubt based on what he knew of them, but that didn't mean they weren't hiding something, maybe the Malfoys were nice behind closed doors to each other, he stopped that train of thought be he found himself laughing at that.

But between a myriad of defence professors that weren't what they appeared and rampant paranoia he was now realising he should work harder at reading people, and Nicolas's lesson on the subtleties of noble gatherings was part of that.

In the end the lesson hadn't been what he expected, images of learning to walk properly, speak with posh inflections and give imperious looks were off the table to dignity, honor and courage and reading an atmosphere, it was almost Gryffindor in some ways.

**Plains**

Having finished supper Harry had been led by a servant to the area he had done weapons testing at, the flat terrain serving as a good battlefield though the lack of cover was also a problem, he was early by the lack of anyone else or Karen late, he wasn't sure.

Pulling his wand out he allowed the runes to empower him, he was slowly figuring out their abilities, the runes gave him almost masterful skills with anything that was a weapon, that said he realised it didn't work on cutlery unless he willed it, intent, the runes worked on that too, a simple dinner knife activated the runes only if he had intent to use it to fight.

The wand too, while itself not a weapon unless poking counted, it was a conduit for attacking, much like a gun was for the bullets, aside from increasing his skills and power by a fair factor he found concentrating on a particular spell brought all the knowledge to the forefront and variations of the spell were made known as such different skills came about.

Like when wielding a long sword, his skills matched the weapon, a different one handed blade like a bastard sword or rapier changed his skills, he cycled through his spells, nothing too dangerous, Protego charm, Locomotor Wibbly, Expelliarmus, Patronus and Petrificus Totalus.

New applications for each entered his head, the brief free time was better for planning, Ron was a better tactician than him, sure Hermione came up with them more often, but Ron usually poked holes in them, giving them alternatives, Harry was nowhere near eithers level there, but he couldn't burden them by relying on them all the time.

It was this that Harry realised was a good thing and bad thing, he was forever trying to avoid burdening others with problems that he was over his head in, yes solving his problems was something he should try and do himself and also grow as a person, but he also should learn to trust his friends to help more too, a complex issue to him of six of one half a dozen of another.

He spotted Karen heading his way with the rest of the family as his reasoning came crashing to an odd conclusion, the woman now in battle armour, a chest plate, arm guards and shin guards, the armour giving the impression of weight.

He knew it was a lie, his history teacher had made that very clear during their middle ages lessons in junior school, armoured knights were just as mobile as anyone on the battlefield, capable of somersaulting onto a horse if they could do that themselves without problem, the few films of armoured knights lumbering around the field slowly was wrong.

"Now Harry." Karen's voice held a hardness he had come to associate with combat, it had the same feeling as Padfoot and Remus had when confronting Wormtail or Voldemort did facing him, it was subtle but it was there. "Nothing fatal, I have heard your spell arsenal has some dangerous attacks so none of those. We will start off first with your casting, let's see your power against me."

Karen pulled her wand-sword out and cast a spell creating something that to him was almost certainly a wind based barrier, he still thought it was stupid to allow someone to throw spells at you, but he would oblige, only because it should have been more satisfying to fire at a person over a tree.

Readying his wand he focused on the stunner spell, with a shout of begin he fired, the red beam of light burst forward far faster than expected, he knew it would be more powerful but knowing and seeing were different things.

The attack hit the barrier dissipating the spell, it was however not the end, he broke the rule of duelling, never fire the same spell twice in a row, it was a bad tactical move, it was why variation was key, keep your opponent off balance.

Multiple rapid shots of the Stupefy spell were launched, it was flashy, certainly not anywhere near as impressive as Karen's barrier, but the impacts showed the attacks had weight, the barrier however still held.

"Okay enough." Karen spoke through the wind. "Better than I expected, I will admit, but still poor."

Harry felt annoyed at that, he was considered to be a fairly good duellist, he wasn't sure exactly what she expected so it was better to expect the worst than big himself up.

"First off, you stayed still, move around more, a moving target is a much harder target to deal with, and use your surroundings."

He wasn't sure why she expected him to move, she wasn't and what surroundings? The flat terrain, unless she wanted him up earthing the ground around them in what was merely showing his power.

Her own lack of mobility to brought up a question, why? It left him one of two possibilities, either she was staying put because it was easier to gauge him, or the spell only worked when static, while it could be either and most likely the former, it wouldn't hurt in a test to assume the later and try a few things out.

"Begin again." Karen's voice called out.

Harry exploded forward, the same stunner again before switching to another spell, Bombarda, the spell fired at the ground on the wind shields borders, the barrier now kicking up large clods of earth.

Karen jumped back the shield breaking, Harry fired another Stupefy and the jelly leg jinx, neither hit but both were close, the shield back up, he pressed again, darting forward and to the left, another Bombarda, a repeat of the same.

He had a plan, whatever magic Karen used seemed slower to cast than his own, not much but it was noticeable to him, he went for the same play, Bombarda, Stupefy, another retreat he changed it up this time, firing another Bombarda at where he expected her to jump too, a jelly leg jinx behind the attack.

It worked, sort of, Karen disabled the shield, dodged the red beam and jumped back, the later spell caught her by surprise, she jumped again only for the spell behind it to hit her legs, her crumpling to a heap on the floor, is what didn't happen however.

She hovered in the air, her own wand waving, a large funnel of wind lanced out like a mini tornado he brought up his Protego charm, the wind slamming into it, the spell held for a few moments before succumbing to the raw power of the wind spell impacting him in the process, the air in his lungs escaped him as he was thrown back like being hit with a bludger.

He coughed, he looked up to see her trying to deal with the effects of his hit, the grass between them was carved up, a trench of dirt with furrows, a new path had been made.

"Interesting spell, so you can think, but remember not to waste too much time testing, you opponent will too be planning." She slowly lowered herself but her expression showed the spell was still in effect. "Can this be undone?"

"Finite." He coughed again as he waved his wand at her, her spell had hurt, he knew now that her spell wasn't that strong, at least compared to what he believed she could do, it wasn't something he hated to admit that she completely outclassed him, such a difference was obvious, he had so far been nothing but lucky, typical Potter luck.

"Still I will give you your dues, while that shield spell is one of the weakest, I see you figured out its weaknesses too yours however was impressive, I can say the time teaching you over the remainder of this week at least won't be a waste for me."

That at least made Harry happy, few people ever really gave him praise or taught him, Remus taught him, Crouch Jr/Moody did too, it was odd, it was almost enough to completely forgive her, almost, and it did at least lessen his anger against her comments.

"I have seen enough today, rest up, tomorrow we will do this for real." With that she turned and continued floating off, behind her, her husband followed.

While he hadn't taken too much damage Eleonore had healed him, it was something of a surprise that she had done so, water magic if he remembered how Nicolas had mentioned it, it was certainly better than Skel grow and the myriad of other potions he ended up downing.

His return to the manor had seen several parcels waiting in his room, his room, Karen had left a message, for as long as he was there, that former guest room was now his, he opened the parcels, three sets of new clothing, two in red and one in green, a separate parcel containing several uniforms and a trunk containing a few books and other materials.

He snorted in amusement even as he felt a few tears, it was a mixture of emotions, but they too were making him feel welcome, sure he got presents from others, his friends and their families gave him stuff, and even if he knew why he got it, he still felt happy.

That night he had a truly peaceful dream, for Harry it was something he could use to power his Patronus should he need it.

The next day was a flurry of activity, Cattleya had apparently fallen sick, while he had learned she was dealing with some form of illness anyway, it didn't stop the family worrying about her.

Nicolas had even asked him if he knew any healing spells, he knew some but knew that without knowing what he was dealing with the chances of him causing worse problems for the woman were high, he didn't want that at all, not when it could potentially kill her if her condition didn't like his magic.

Since the family too knew little of what truly affected her Harry knew nothing he said would help, he was in all intents and against everything he faced a child, he had no medical background, little healing ability outside of physical damage and nothing that without knowing what was wrong could help, he was certain to a high extent that they had employed the best healers they could telling him he was unlikely to make a difference there.

With nothing to do and Louise fussing over Cattleya and Karen and Nicolas off to get the healer Harry headed back to the armoury, he was to try out some weapons again and kill time.

"Where are you going Harry?" He turned to find Eleonore standing there with a frown.

"Practice?" He spoke. "Weapons practice."

"Forget that, instead you are coming with me."

Harry didn't get a chance to reply as the woman marched off, seeing the path of least resistance as the one that gave him less of a headache he shrugged his shoulders and followed the blonde, into the library.

"I must say, I am impressed, I have never seen spells like yours before, but don't think you could beat mother with them." Eleonore spoke sitting down, to Harry she gave off the sexy librarian look, something Dean and Shamus were always on about sexy something, but to them as long as they had a 'cracking arse' or 'cracking tits' they seemed happy.

While to Harry he doubted Eleonore would get classed with cracking tits he would admit but only under veritaserum that she had a nice arse.

"Since little Louise will be staying with Cattleya for most of the day, it has fallen to me to continue your training, so I expect you to listen." Eleonore continued. "Now, where are your current progress notes?"

"Accio Harry's language notes." Harry pulled his wand back out and waved them around, a flurry of paper rustling sounds filled the quiet room and several books flew through the air and landed on the table.

There was silence as the books landed, Eleonore looked at Harry with a calculating expression, she picked up one of the leather bound books turning it over and putting it down, picking it up she tried again.

"So, what was that?"

"Summoning spell, pulls objects to the caster based on what is called for."

"Can it summon people?"

Harry paused, he would say no, but he hadn't really thought on the spell, he held his wand as he brought the knowledge of the Accio spell forward, there were applications, but in regards to it, there were limitations on using it on humans.

In a way it could be used like the Carpe Retractum spell but without the rope, in those cases Accio couldn't be dodged or deflected, but it couldn't be used to say summon someone's heart out of their body, careful application of the spell could be useful with other spells in tandem.

"From a short distance yes, about 10m at most." Harry replied. "Most creatures and objects from a much larger range, naming the item even further."

Eleonore nodded in understanding, that was a useful spell for finding items she lost, she appraised the boy in front of her, were he not almost half her age she would have suggested an engagement, she frowned which caused him to lean backwards, the last one had been disastrous and it annoyed her how he had broken it off.

"Um, do you not like your older sister?" Harry asked before realising what he had said. "I mean."

"Older sister?" Eleonore's face changed, while still a scowl it was now more aimed at him though mixed in with confusion. "I have no older sister, Cattleya is younger than me if that is who you were talking about, and no I don't hate her, but I will not speak on this matter."

Harry nodded at this while he refiled the information, he had believed the bustier woman had been the oldest and since he had never asked no one had cleared it up, his eyes tracked her as covertly as possible, it was not covertly enough as she frowned more.

"So you assumed because I am not as...endowed as her that I was younger, such foolishness, you really are a child and a boy, I have nothing to be ashamed of in my body."

She crossed her arms and turned slightly away in a huff, her voice tinged with annoyance and maybe hurt, while Harry to felt some at being labelled a child he had caused the issue though he realised that both Louise and Eleonore had some similar personality architypes.

Both seemed to say one thing but mean another, he was certain a term applied to both but couldn't remember what it was.

"Sorry." He decided to act the bigger man and apologise for it hoping it would fix the atmosphere that was descending over the room.

Eleonore looked at him for a long moment, her stare coming from behind her angular glasses met his own her scrutinising gaze broke as she sighed deeply.

"You really are socially inept, and I though little Louise was bad."

Harry went to retort, he wasn't that bad was he? Sure the Yule ball he wasn't exactly a shining example of charisma and social skills but they were girls, packs of girls at that and he was only just recovering from the stigma of being a cheat and glory hound.

He just wasn't great around those he didn't know and with so many brash and eccentric personalities he was having trouble finding common ground. More so when he wasn't from the world and had little to go on from a cultural perspective at least with his magical world he had a better understanding on that.

"Your silence answers that then Harry." He blinked realising he had not answered back. "But enough of that, mother wants you literate before the end of the week, open the book and lets start."

**Tristain Academy – Headmasters Office**

Osmond sighed as he placed down another letter that had been intercepted from the student body regarding the summoning of Harry, without the usual wax seals on the letters it had been easy to read through and check their content before sending certain letters through, but only those not relating to the incident at large.

Fifteen had been destroyed based on various students sending missives to their families some of them from students in the first and third year an even worse idea with them only getting hearsay and some of them outright stating the De Valliere family was attempting to enslave everyone and needed to be dealt with.

Osmond shuddered at the idea of a student saying that but there were sadly and always a few rotten apples in the bunch, ensuring the letter was in the small dish he quickly cast another flame spell incinerating the paper.

He couldn't confront the students about it, to do so would inform them they were being monitored and they would find ways to circumvent his control over the information, they were quite inventive when they wanted to be.

For the most part the last few days had been relatively quiet outside of this and a few altercations with the Gramont heir and the usual problems with Zerbst and her poor scheduling skills, three students had been admitted to the infirmary over fighting over the girl again.

Colbert too had found nothing else in the library relating to the summons but he had been told that he was to priorities teaching his students, as much as Osmond felt for the young Harry he wasn't about to risk the education of the students over one boy regardless of intent or blame.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to keep an ear to the ground and his eyes open, he did have the idea of asking about the man that had saved his life several decades ago against the dragon and show him the staff, leads like that could help.

With a self-affirmed nod he closed his eyes pretending to sleep as he enjoyed the view of his secretary that his own familiar was seeing from a new hiding place, yes sometimes being old dropped others guard.

**Bedroom – De Valliere Manor**

Harry slumped onto the bed, exhausted from both the long hours under the stern tutelage of Eleonore and the magic training from Karen. With Nicolas away dealing with the healer for Cattleya the battle training had happened later since Karen had finished her husband's duties for the country and as such he had missed the more relaxing cultural discussion.

As such his day had followed with hard hitting of text books and writing practice, Eleonore was without a doubt a complete sadist in relation to what she expected of him, even the slightest letter too long or slanted was redone until perfect.

To him it was like writing lines something he hadn't done outside of Primary school and the odd Snape detention when he wasn't scrubbing cauldrons for the man, it made his wish to return home all the stronger as nothing could compare to this writing torture.

She did however slightly offset the problem when he did well, a few light smiles and tending to the strained hand, though when he thought about it Harry was beginning to think this was to prolong the torture, he was almost wishing for Voldemort to appear, almost.

Karen had for her lesson started with explanation of the elemental trait system used by the continents mages, a more theoretical start. Harry found that using their magic was impossible during training, he did however get a sliver of an idea from the rune that he would visit later on that would allow him to use it.

With the discussion done Karen had again gone with a light spar with him as she stated, light in the essence of several gouged sections of the ground and more bruises, Karen healing them and the subsequent bath had eased the pain he was in after the adrenalin had died down.

As his mind shut down for the night under the warm covers of the bed he wondered if he would survive the last 4 days of the week.

**A/N: So Harry as a vassal, I have already got his rank sorted after much thinking, it makes sense based on the problems that are abound in this story, in a world where hereditary titles and nepotism are rife I couldn't see a reason not to take this path.**

**It will be important throughout the story and as seen in the fifth book, Harry does have some good leadership potential so it should work well.**

**Karen's battle, while I myself have no doubts to Karen smearing Harry across the country she was going very easy on him, I would say that unless a HP wizard or witch got the drop on her she would win easily.**

**To answer the questions from reviews that others might want to know too, I will explain below:**

**Q: Will Harry become friends with Guiche later?**

**A: Unlikely, while I myself like Guiche as a character, he is a second year to Harry's first year making interaction difficult, second, the lack of Guiche battle scene has already upset the canon apple cart, planning is for Chapter 5 for Tristain to again feature predominantly (though this chapter hints at something) so you will have to wait until then to see what that did.**

**Q: What about Derf?**

**A: Again this is a matter of canon avoidance, yes like Guiche I like Derf, but now that Harry is a noble, why would anyone give him a rusty sword? I can't force that without it going towards everything I hate about the FOZ fandom and against the reason behind this fic.**

**That said since issues behind Derf are broken between what is said in series and what happened in series, I am going to state Authors prerogative and say he will appear, but not until after the Fouquet arc.**


End file.
